Meet Ifiok Nkem, medical doctor turned technopreneur

December 7, 2020 Mary

Many entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to solve societal problems. For Ifiok Nkem, founder of Snapilabs, a tech business with a wide range of cloud software products, his driving force is passion to empower lives through technology.

With Snapilabs, Ifiok is on a mission to create products that empower people to use technology & innovation to achieve more in their lives, businesses, and communities.

The young technopreneur was inspired to establish his business in 2016 out of his desire to improve people’s socioeconomic status.

“I went to university to study Medicine because of my passion for saving lives but during my clinical years, I got to discover that the top risk factor for most chronic illnesses in Nigeria is low socioeconomic status,” he says.

“Most of the delays in healthcare delivery are also linked to low socioeconomic status. This led to a massive shift for me. A shift from saving lives to empowering lives,” he adds.

Ifiok identifies tech as the vehicle to empower people and improve people’s socioeconomic status.

He developed products to help businesses increase their customer base to scale while creating more jobs for the economy.

“I have seen people use our software products to generate more sales in five months than they did five years before,” he says.

Snapilabs has empowered thousands of people across the African continent with digital skills to create wealth.

He started the business small with $100 and a laptop he lent from a friend at that time.

Since starting, the business has grown steadily and currently has 11 cloud software products. It has grown from three to over 25 full-time employees and from zero to 40,000 paid users.

“We recently moved into a new headquarters to accommodate our growing team,” he tells Start-Up-Digest.

Snapilabs now has an incubation hub for young technopreneurs.

“We have our 40 young people currently at the lab – team members, interns, as well as start-ups and entrepreneurs using the co-working space we have at the hub,” he states.

Speaking on how the pandemic has affected his business, the young entrepreneur says the virus outbreak has affected Snapilabs both positively and negatively.

“Our sales skyrocketed during the lockdown as many businesses are now selling online. The demand for our products increased,” he notes.

“In a month, we had over 1,000 new businesses purchase our stormerce software – an eCommerce business and store builder,” he says.

On the negative impact of the virus outbreak on his business, he says it disrupted Snapilabs workflow.

“During the lockdown, we were forced to experiment with 100 percent remote working and this affected our productivity and it took a while before we could adjust,” he says.

He notes that his business has strategised to survive the pandemic by building products that will help other businesses survive in a post-COVID era.

One of such products is the videoTours360 software which combines cutting-edge technology (virtual reality, gamification, live video, artificial intelligence and machine learning) to help businesses deliver interactive experiences to customers at their homes.

In evaluating the country’s tech industry, Ifiok says it has evolved and is still evolving.

“A couple of years ago, it was very difficult to recruit tech talents in Nigeria, but that has changed now. Also, the world is now more receptive to products coming from Nigeria,” he notes.

“We are looking forward to when the Nigerian tech space will evolve beyond social enterprises, fintech, and venture- backed start-ups to also accommodate more customer-backed start-ups,” he says.

He says the workforce for the future is going to be remote and that the future is already here.

He explains that with technology, organisations can monitor their staff with employee monitoring software.

On his assessment of the Nigerian business environment and why most start-ups fail less than five years after operation, he says lack of strategy, inadequate budget, and improper market research have led to the collapse of many new businesses.

“Another problem is focusing on PR and funding, instead of customer acquisition, sales, and cash flow,” he adds.

On some of the business expansion plans, he says Snapilabs wants to expand its product offer, scaling the winners that have attained product-market fit and also growing customers from 40,000 to 400,000.

He adds that it also plans to grow its paid users to 40 million by the end of 2025.

“We are working on expanding the lab (internship, incubation & coworking spaces) to make room for more aspiring digital entrepreneurs who need training and support,” he notes, as some of the business’ short-term plans.

On major hurdle the business has faced since starting, he says, is surviving the difficult operating environment and dealing with inconsistent policies in the country. He says it remains the main challenge confronting the business.

“We are having a challenge in paying salaries and other expenses because we are unable to withdraw money from our bank account. CBN pegged dollar withdrawals at a maximum of $20,000 per month,” he explains.

“Another problem is the poor internet connectivity. This has affected our ability to collaborate in real-time with our remote team members,” he says.

“It also affects the cultural buy-in of our cloud software products in the local market,” he adds.

He urges the government to ensure policy consistency and review the CBN’s policy on FX withdrawal limits on business accounts.

“These restrictions, if needed, should only apply to personal accounts and not business accounts,” he advises.

“The government should ensure that the New Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020 -2025) is implemented. This will open up the digital economy,” he says.