With the growth of technological advancements like cloud computing, data is a big commodity in the African tech market. Arravo has found itself taking on the big task to empower businesses through such ICT solutions aiming to be the leading IOT enabler for human-to-human interaction by the year 2025.
Cloud computing has the power to change the ICT sector, and there’s one company taking on the responsibility to disrupt the way businesses in Africa operate indefinitely.
“Part of our mission is to be an enabler of IoT and human-to-human connectivity. So we are pretty much at the heart of technology itself in Africa,” Ayo Adegboye, CEO of Arravo.
Previously known as BCX Nigeria, which was a subsidiary of business Connection PTY (BCX) a South African-based ICT firm, Arravo’s aim is to innovate, disrupt and deliver technology for business and life.
“Your business is not going to die because of technology. But your business is going to die because you have not adopted technology,” he says.
Arravo provides ICT services including cloud computing, unified communications, and collaborations, converged connectivity, mobility, security, Internet of Things, M2M and big data analytics and managed print services (MPS).
It has been one year since the rebranding in 2020, and has already garnered awards.
Last year they were awarded the Nigeria Technology Innovation and Telecoms Award for best systems Integration service provider of the year in 2021.
“This award re-established our leadership in the industry. It further emphasized that we have gone all out to make things happen for our customers,” he says.
Adegboye considers himself a God-fearing technophile who loves to play golf.
Just as his love for golf teaches him to remain calm and focus on succeeding on the golf course, so does he abide by these rules in the game of business.
“So we bought over a brand and an entire business including the assets and liability of the multinational and are growing the brand out of Nigeria to the rest of the world. And we are very clear. We have a vision and we have a mission. We are not distracted,”
He took over the business seven years ago when it was still BCX however it was only when the name changed that he considered it his happiest day.
Months of planning and preparation had gone into it just a few years before.
What’s more, taking over a huge brand in the midst of a pandemic, may be considered a very risky business decision for some.
But for Adegboye, this was an opportunity to turn rock into a diamond.
“So when we started it, was quite challenging. It was not like, the money was there to acquire this multibillion-dollar asset from the multinational foreign entity. But I think it’s the power of vision. When people see that you have a vision, it’s easier for you to get family and friends to support your vision, you simply see that you have the drive to get support from people to support the drive,” he says.
For him, he believes that brand equity plays a huge role in the value they have brought to the table.
“The brand equity sustainability is also in the heart of almost every employee,” he says.
Arravo has cemented itself as a ‘Glocal’ brand, which means local with a growing national and regional footprint to global culture, corporate governance and rules.
Arravo prides itself on going global with pedigree and integrity.
“Our brand promise, which we have printed and made open to the world is that a piece of our mind equals to the customers’ peace of mind,” says Morenike Alder, the VP of Marketing and Communications.
Morenike has taken on the mandate to build the strongest IT brand in Africa.
“This means that for us to be able to deliver on that promise, we have to be right on the top of our game, in terms of technical expertise and indeed that has been one of the differentiators for ARRAVO, right from the days of BCX and, even after we transitioned to Arravo,” she says.
As a “rough diamond” with the right amount of pressure, Arravo was able to process the painful reality of the pandemic, the right documentation, marketing, beating the competition, and at the very edge of the lockdown, they signed the contract marking the beginning of something new.
“And I know a few months from now, we’re going to come out shining bright like a diamond,” Adegboye says.
Currently, they have expanded operations into Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire and have set their eyes on East Africa including Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania by the end of their calendar year.
These expansions allow Arravo to bridge the gap between West Africa, Francophone Africa, and East Africa.
However, with the aim for growth, Arravo promises not to compromise on their value, corporate governance, and ethics, putting their clients first.
“We’ve invested in our people. We’ve put in a whole lot, and we’re already working on our IoT platform, we’ve invested in cloud, and partnered with some of the most advanced security companies like AWS, and the likes of Microsoft Azure, just to make sure that we give back to the customer the economies of scale,” Adegboye says.
From technological advancements in IoT to artificial intelligence in the retail and telecommunications industry and this is just the tip of the iceberg of what Arravo plans to offer.
Their green, future-looking offices located on the affluent Lagos island of Ikoyi are nothing short of environmentally friendly.
As the world looks towards sustainability and curbing climate change Arravo’s technological solutions reduce the global carbon footprint as they empower companies to adopt to cloud thus reducing the need to rely on infrastructure and use serverless technologies and electronic content management solutions and electronic document solutions.
A survey conducted by Accenture in 2020 revealed that companies can lessen their per-user carbon footprint from between 30% to 90% by switching to cloud computing.
This offers great opportunities to businesses across Africa with Arravo at the helm driving this.
“We’re beginning to gain adoption of technology, we’re beginning to see traction from the adoption. The first thing customers brood about is the cost-saving, then they look at the carbon footprint, ” Adegboye says.
However, outdated government legislature and policies make the shift towards technological advancements in the private sector very difficult.
“Whether governments like it or not, technology is already breaking the barrier of working,” he says.
By the year 2025, Arravo’s mission is to become a household name and speak to the needs of the people.
In his waking life, Adegboye constantly fantasizes about the future of technology thinking about how the 5G and the 6G would be able to operate across different regions and what Africans can do with data.
“I’m fantasizing about what we can do with data. I’m fantasizing about when we have so much data with artificial intelligence and what we can do with it being able to have some level of prediction,” he says boldly.
Technology has the power to reduce human error, enhance the quality of life and help in making informed decisions.
“People say ‘technology is going to take our jobs’. And I say technology is not going to take your job. Technology is one factor that is concerned with almost every sector of the economy,” he adds on.
One of the key lessons learned for Arravo is never to compromise on value and they hope to continue with that legacy.
“So at the heart of everything everybody’s doing today is technology,” he says
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