There is going to be massive explosions in new businesses, new organisations, and new markets, as a result of technology – Sir Demola Aladekomo.
God uses humans to accomplish His will for many things. He used Noah to build the ark and save people. He called Abraham to be the father of His people. He raised the judges to deliver His people (Judges 2:16). God’s use of humans to accomplish His will signifies that as His creations, we are to be the agents through which He accomplishes His will. Sir Ademola Benjamin Aladekomo’s (ABA) willingness to say “yes” to God changed the trajectories of how a company Computer Hardware and Maintenance Services, an enterprise that was registered as a limited liability company, take only the acronyms CHAMS Limited and today, it is Chams Holding Plc listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Indeed, Chams Holding Plc is God’s own business.
Sir Demola Aladekomo’s great innovative and pioneering works in Chams extended to his pioneered PC Maintenance between 1985-1987; Local, Metropolitan and Wide Area Networking 1986-1990; Identity Management 1992-1999; and E-payment solutions 1992-1999.’ He achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest internet mall for Chams-City Abuja and Lagos in 2009. Achieved the largest identity card personalisation plant in Abuja with the capacity to do 1.75m cards per day. Led the successful implementation of the first of its type in the world, the Bank Verification Number project for Nigerian Banks 2013-2015.’ By the grace of God, Sir Demola Aladekomo ‘grew Chams from a one-man outfit to a Nigeria Stock Exchange listed company with six subsidiaries and investment in a few others.’
Chams is not the first indigenous IT firm on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. Sir Demola Aladekomo said, “Before us, there were companies that specialised in mainframe computers, but we were the first to specialise in microcomputers.” The facilitator of Chams, Sir Aladekomo, believed that only God can create or be the founder of something. However, God can use one to facilitate. God used me as a facilitator for Chams.’ Everything about Sir Aladekomo tells us who the person that God uses is. Scripture shows us that the people God used were not always the most qualified but people with the needed depth of character that positioned them in a place of great usefulness. God uses people who are born again and are flexible. Full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom, known for their excellent reputation, faithful, available, and teachable. God uses that man, that woman who is open and ready to be used by Him.
As a handmaid of God, Sir Aladekomo obeyed God to bring about Chams first as an outcome of his relationship with God and secondly based on his professional training. Just as God used Paul’s legal training and as a Pharisee and his tenacity to transform him into a great preacher of the Gospel, globally, God is using Sir Aladekomo, a computer engineer, not only to transform the computer world, but God is also using him as a great pioneer beyond a computer enthusiast.
The testimony about Chams tells us how God uses our hardships and troubles to build us up and testify to His grace in our lives. Sir Aladekomo ‘was always excited, even in the turbulent days, and Chams has been through turbulent periods in our lifetime. Even in those days, I felt fulfilled and blessed. When I was facing a major challenge like the last one, when we had a crisis of billions of naira and the government was ready to shut us down, I felt blessed because it is not everyone who has multi-billionaire problems. That I even have that problem is a blessing. I have been blessed just by being part of the company from day one. You can imagine how blessed I feel if I feel blessed when I have problems.’
Cham’s pioneering legacy of the identity management solution in Nigeria had some challenges. According to Sir Aladekomo, ‘The last problem we had was with the national identity card project … it took us a couple of years to come up with a technology that could manufacture ID cards and print them on PVC because we used to print ID cards on paper, then laminate. After we designed it, the government invited us, knowing that we pioneered the technology and the first time the project succeeded was in 1999. The National ID Card programme started in 1996 but didn’t succeed until Chams got involved in 1998, and by April 1999, we printed the first one million ID cards without collecting a dime from the government. It was after we finished it that the Obasanjo government came in 1999. They probed it and discovered that we didn’t collect any money, but we delivered. We got commended by the Christopher Kolade Panel, the Senate, and other institutions. They wondered the kind of company that could do a job without collecting money, especially because the National ID card project had been a means for people to siphon the country’s money. After we were commended, they paid us without adding the rest of the money.
They said they would have to go to the tender’s board. They went there, and we won, but they gave it to a different company, which came fifth. Unfortunately, it was a national saga that was all over the Internet. They took our money and didn’t produce anything. Then, in 2006, the government called us back to come for a tender, which we did, but we told them that we wanted the project to be privately funded, and they accepted all our terms and conditions. We joined them, did the tender, and won. After winning, it took them a while because it was a huge project. It was the last project Obasanjo signed on before he handed over in 2007. And he made us a promise that in 2009, the project would be ready. Based on that promise, we went to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise about N11bn to do the National ID card project. By that time, there was a new government and there was a new commission, which was one of the things we asked for. Because we already had their word, we promised the government that by 2009, most Nigerians would have their National ID cards. We raised the money and started the implementation, but the government didn’t give us the necessary approval needed to implement that project. The private sector person that was supposed to head the National Identity Commission became more Catholic than the pope. He denied us approval before eventually giving it to us in 2010. And in that period, he stopped us from going to the field. In 2012, he allowed us to go to the field, but he asked us to tell him what we wanted to do and by that night, he went to meet all our technical partners and staff to buy them over. The government of Nigeria stole our technical partners, our design, intellectual property, and staff. After stealing from me, they started implementing it themselves and they forgot that I went to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise the funds. The irony of it was that I was invited by Goodluck Jonathan’s government to come and see the launch of my technical partners and the Federal Government launching my intellectual property. However, it was not the government but the DG, National Identity Management Commission, that did it and this got the Chams Group into massive turbulence because we borrowed the money. By 2012, we practically became bankrupt, and it was only by the grace of God that we were able to survive.’
The man God uses can cope during challenging times because they are in partnership with God. Sir Aladekomo, in God’s wisdom, separated the ownership of Chams from management and family from business. He explained that he does not mix family and business. Even though the government of Nigeria made Chams go bankrupt, Sir Aladekomo cannot explain how Chams survived; according to him, “We are supposed to have been dead. I even did everything possible to kill some of our subsidiaries. In fact, I was so surprised to learn that I didn’t succeed because the managing directors of some of those companies said they were doing well. I will just say it was the faith in God that sustained us through that tough period. We are still not where we were in 2010, but we are back on our feet.’
To the glory of God, Chams Holdings Plc, as a leading provider of integrated identity management, Chams Holdings Plc ‘is no longer working with the government and government-owned entities following a $100m debt it said it incurred as a result of government shortcomings,’ and irresponsibility.
Sir Aladekomo, a treasurer of God’s itinerant kingdom, continues to exercise and live a lifestyle shaped by the fear of God as the source of his inspiration and quietly uses his God-given wealth for the common good of the people, the body of Christ, Wesley University, Ondo, and most especially for the welfare of clergymen and women. Sir Aladekomo, a Knight of John Wesley and a Methodist local preacher, remains a model of humility and service to God. I remember Sir Aladekomo’s unforgettable but quiet sponsorship of the Year 2000 Methodist National Evangelical Convention at Orimerunmu. In response to my announcement about the Convention at a monthly Anointing service at City Mission Methodist Church, Surulere, Lagos, Sir Aladekomo invited me to see him at his office at Surulere. A few days after my visit to Sir Aladekomo, an envelope addressed to the Chairman of the Convention Committee was delivered to my office at Wesley House, Lagos. The envelope contained a bank draft to purchase a generator for the Convention. It took some of the Committee members some time to discover the source of the donation.
When Sir Aladekomo retired from Chams in 2015, he started to work on the Smart City project registered in 2002. The project is a continuation of trying to solve problems. Sir Aladekomo believed that’ a man’s life is wasted if he does not serve his fellow human beings.’ Chams Plc, on March 3 2020, appointed Sir Aladekomo as its new Chairman of the board of directors.
Sir Aladekomo was born on December 31, 1957. On his childhood ambitions, Sir Aladekomo grew up very poor. He said he ‘just wanted to live daily, which was enough for me. I was very poor, though not as a church rat. It was just faith in God, hard work and reading that got me to this point.’
Sir Aladekomo graduated from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, in 1982 with a degree in computer engineering and obtained an MBA) with Distinction) from the University of Lagos in 1984. He was Chief Executive Programmer at the Lagos Business School (LBS) from 1991 to 1992.
Sir Aladekomo served as the president of the Nigeria Computer Society. He is also a Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society, a Member of the Nigeria Society of Engineers, and a Computer Professional Registration Council Fellow. Sir Aladekomo is the chairman of SmartCity Resorts Plc, Card Centre Nigeria Limited, Treasure-nest Limited, Crops Nigeria Limited, Chams Consortium Limited, and Insider Concepts Limited. He is a Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society (FNCS) and the Computer Professional Registration Council (CPN), a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and the immediate past President of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association (LBSAA), and the Nigeria Computer Society, respectively. Sir Aladekomo, a brilliant technologist and philanthropist, has also served as the vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of SmartCard Society of Nigeria. He founded the DATA Foundation and Volunteer Corps, non-governmental organizations engaged in corporate social investments in Nigeria.
Sir Aladekomo served in the following capacities: Council Member, Osun State University; Board Member, Board Member, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAUTECHEXCEL), the foundation implementing a knowledge park at the university; Patron, Lagos City Chorale Group, Member, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) from inception/Vision 2010 and Vision 2020.
Celebrating Sir Aladekomo at 66 calls us to lift him in prayers for more unction to function as he leads Chams Holding Plc in digital projects in Nigeria and Africa. Sir Aladekomo is married to the Very Rev Titi Aladekomo, a Methodist presbyter, an entrepreneur and philanthropist. They are blessed with children and grandchildren. Worthy is the Lamb!
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