MEET AMINU BAKORI, FOUNDER OF FRIENDSTIE A STARTUP THAT PROVIDES SAAS SOLUTIONS

When i first met Aminu Bakori, it was in an event organized by Startup Kaduna. Aminu made a presentation that caught my attention and left me so amazed and impressed by this Northern talent. He broke my long misconception for lack of talents and innovative startups in the North. This prompted me to seek an interview with this future Bill Gates. Yes, because this guy has an OS which he developed to work seamlessly with any device including cars and smart TVs. here are some excerpts from the interview;

The Northerner: Who is Aminu Bakori?

Aminu: Aminu Bakori is a Nigerian tech enthusiast. He's from Bakori, Katsina state and has lived most of his live in Kaduna. He graduated last year (2015) from the well known Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he studied statistics.  

The Northerner: What made you made choose a career with computers?

Aminu: Well I have been around computers since my young age early days of my Primary School to be more specific, and I have been passionate about them since then. So I choose the career path because I love computing.

The Northerner: When did you start to code?

Aminu: I started coding since around 2008.

The Northerner: Did you do any interesting project in the past?

Aminu: My first project (Fully completed project) was a school management software. I have built multiple softwares after then but here are some of them: A school social networking service AbuChat(Shutdown), a worldwide social networking service Friendstie(discontinued), an enterprise management software (Friendstie EMS http://ems.friendstie.org), an office communication tool (Buzz http://Friendstie.org/buzz), a text only social network (Wrdlr http://wrdlr.com).

The Northerner: You are a Founder of a growing startup, can you tell us about it and your aim?

Aminu: Yes I'm the Founder of Friendstie Concept. A tech startup that focus on providing custom software solutions to individuals and businesses. The company was formed in 2013 ending and was officially registered with the Nigerian CAC in January 2014 after the dissolution of Alameen Tech. The company has since then built and worked with multiple businesses in providing custom softwares and online services to them. 

The Northerner: You made a presentation at the Startup Kaduna Weekend Hack series 2016, what was it about?

Aminu: The presentation was the official public launch of a new product we are building at Friendstie called CloudioraOS. Cloudiora is an operating system re-imagined and built on web technology. It is designed to run on almost every device, PCs, Smartphones and tablets, TVs and even your Car. It's built to bring converged computing experience a reality. Same operating system same user interface same apps everywhere. With Cloudiora, we are aspiring to build the world cheapest devices with high end features. We are looking forward to putting a computer on every students desk here in Africa.

It's a very interesting project and we are happy about the progress we have made and the feedback we are getting from reviewers.

The Northerner: What are your challenges so far?

Aminu: Starting up a tech company here in a developing country like Nigeria and most especially in Northern Nigeria is pretty hard. Some of the challenges I face are mostly lack of good infrastructures like consistent electricity, fast and cheap internet and low exchange rates. Finding talent is also hard and tech awareness is very low. 

The Northerner: What are your expectations for the future?

Aminu: I expect to see significant changes in having consistent electricity, low priced and high speed internet and low exchange rates. I also expect to see more people going into the tech world and more coders(Coding enhances your thinking capabilities)infrastructural enhancement will enable us in providing Nigerian based solutions like Data Centers to enable us provide low priced online services to individuals and businesses here in Nigeria and the world at large, thereby improving the economy of the country and attracting foreign investments.

The Northerner: What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts?

Aminu: Tech is really good, it's profitable and has a lot of benefits for but the entrepreneur and businesses/individuals he/she serves. It's the future and every sector has to rely on it to succeed. So my advice to upcoming entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts is to tighten their belts as a tech revolution is about to begin. Don't give up as patience is the key to succeeding.