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As Nigeria’s technology ecosystem continues to expand, much of the attention has been concentrated on consumer-facing sectors such as fintech, e-commerce and digital services.
Despite these strides, however, challenges remain, particularly around the compatibility of foreign-built technologies with Nigeria’s unique business, regulatory and operational environment. There are also growing questions about whether enough locally developed technologies are being created to address the economic and financial demands of the country’s expanding population.
Against this backdrop, The SUN’s Kenneth Udeh spoke with Chidozie Philip Nwabueze, a young software engineer and business analyst who believes Nigeria’s next major technology opportunity lies in building locally relevant solutions that help businesses improve their internal operations.
The Enugu-born Nigerian has contributed to the development of CentaHR, a human resources and payroll technology platform.
In this exclusive interview, the Master’s graduate in Psychological Well-being and Mental Health discusses his experience contributing to the platform, the complexities of developing payroll and compliance technology in Nigeria, the importance of understanding business alongside technology, and why he believes B2B software could play a much bigger role in Nigeria’s digital economy.
Enjoy:
You have spoken about the potential of B2B technology in Nigeria. Why is this important to you?
Chidozie Philip Nwabueze: My interest comes largely from problems I have encountered professionally. Before becoming deeply involved in software engineering, I worked in human resources and saw some of the administrative challenges organisations face around employee records, attendance, payroll and other workforce processes.
Later, as I moved into business analysis, data analytics and software engineering, I began looking at those problems differently. Instead of simply asking why a process was inefficient, I started asking whether technology could make it better.
That is one reason I believe there is a significant opportunity for B2B technology in Nigeria. Businesses have operational problems that may not always attract public attention, but solving them can improve productivity and decision-making.
How did that experience influence your involvement with CentaHR?
Nwabueze: CentaHR brought together several areas in which I had developed experience: HR operations, business analysis, data and backend engineering.
I contributed to the development of the platform as part of the engineering effort, particularly around backend systems and functionality relating to payroll, attendance and statutory compliance.
What interested me was not simply developing features. It was understanding the business requirement behind a feature and determining how that requirement should translate into software.
For example, payroll is not just about calculating an employee’s salary. You have employee information, attendance, approvals, PAYE, pension and other statutory obligations. These processes interact with one another, so the technology needs to reflect that complexity while remaining usable for the business.
What has been one of the biggest lessons from working on payroll technology?
Nwabueze: One major lesson is that engineers developing compliance-related products cannot work entirely in isolation.
You need to understand the regulations, but you also need to understand how businesses interpret and implement those requirements operationally.
My experience contributing to CentaHR included engagement with FIRS personnel around relevant tax and compliance considerations. Those interactions reinforced for me the importance of listening to people who understand the regulatory environment and translating that understanding into appropriate technical and product decisions.
The objective should not be to make an already complicated regulatory process more complicated through software. Technology should make it easier for businesses to understand and manage their obligations.
Does that require software engineers to understand business as well as technology?
Nwabueze: I believe so, particularly when building B2B products.
Technical competence is essential, but understanding the business problem is equally important. An API can be technically excellent and still solve the wrong problem.
My background in psychology, HR, business analysis and data analytics has influenced the way I approach software engineering. I naturally think about the people using the system, the organisation behind the process and the business outcome the technology is supposed to achieve.
That perspective has been particularly useful while contributing to CentaHR.
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Nigeria is well known for fintech innovation. Where do you see the next opportunity?
Nwabueze: Fintech has demonstrated what Nigerian entrepreneurs and engineers can achieve when technology is applied to a widespread problem.
I think there is room for the same level of attention to be directed towards enterprise technology. There are opportunities in HR technology, regulatory technology, logistics, healthcare administration, inventory management, cybersecurity, business intelligence and workflow automation.
These products may not always have millions of individual consumers downloading an app because the customer is the business. But improving the operations of thousands of businesses can create significant economic value.
What problem do you think locally developed B2B software can solve better?
Nwabueze: Context is very important.
A global software platform may be technically sophisticated, but businesses in different markets operate within different regulatory, financial and organisational environments. Locally developed technology can begin with those realities.
In payroll, for example, Nigerian businesses have to consider local tax and statutory requirements. A product designed with those requirements in mind can potentially reduce the amount of manual work businesses need to perform around their existing processes.
That principle extends beyond HR technology. Logistics software needs to understand local logistics challenges. Financial software needs to understand the local financial environment. Healthcare technology needs to understand how healthcare is actually delivered.
The closer you are to the problem, the better positioned you can be to design an appropriate solution.
Do you believe Nigerian B2B products can compete internationally?
Nwabueze: Absolutely, but I think the starting point should be solving problems properly rather than trying to appear global immediately.
Many challenges businesses experience in Nigeria also exist elsewhere: fragmented workflows, administrative inefficiency, payroll complexity and limited access to useful business intelligence.
If we develop products that solve those problems effectively in Nigeria, there may be opportunities to adapt them for other African markets and eventually international markets.
Building locally does not mean thinking locally forever.
Where do you see your own work developing from here?
Nwabueze: I am particularly interested in the intersection of workforce technology, payroll automation, regulatory technology and artificial intelligence.
I want to continue contributing to technology that helps organisations make better workforce decisions and reduces unnecessary administrative complexity.
I am also interested in how AI can support workforce intelligence and business decision-making without removing the human understanding that is essential when designing systems involving employees.
Longer term, I want to contribute to building scalable technology companies that can operate across markets.
What would you like to see change within Nigeria’s technology ecosystem?
Nwabueze: I would like us to broaden how we think about technology entrepreneurship.
Consumer technology is extremely important, but we should also celebrate entrepreneurs and engineers building the infrastructure businesses depend on.
Some of the most valuable technology companies of the future may not necessarily be the applications consumers interact with every day. They could be platforms helping businesses manage employees, automate compliance, coordinate logistics, analyse operations or make better decisions.
Nigeria already has a strong entrepreneurial culture and a growing technology talent base. I believe the next opportunity is to apply more of that talent to the operational challenges facing businesses.
We should not only ask how technology can change the lives of consumers. We should also ask: How can technology make the businesses that power Nigeria’s economy more productive, competitive and scalable?
