In the 1990s, when most Nigerian businesses still relied on paper files, fax machines, and office memos, Chuma Chukwujama was already convinced software was the future he should pursue.
Fresh out of studying electrical and electronics engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, one of Nigeria’s premier universities, in 1996, he had realised something early: he did not want to become a traditional engineer.
Nigeria was still under military rule; engineering jobs were limited despite a high employment rate of over 82%, which was mostly informal; and the internet economy, which would later reshape business operations worldwide, was only beginning to take shape. So instead of searching endlessly for employment, Chukwujama started building technology.
“If thousands of engineering graduates came out of universities at the time, only a small fraction could find actual engineering jobs,” Chukwujama told TechCabal in an interview. So I started asking myself what else I could do, and that was how I began building technology.”
He started his first company, Allied Technologies, in 1996 at a time when businesses globally were beginning to shift from paper-based operations to digital tools. That same year, Microsoft released products that helped make computers and the internet more practical for everyday business use. These included Internet Explorer 3.0, one of Microsoft’s early web browsers that helped popularise internet browsing, and Windows CE 1.0, a lightweight operating system designed for early handheld and portable devices.
In November 1996, Microsoft Office 97 introduced Outlook, combining email, calendars, and scheduling into a single workplace application. As businesses slowly adopted these tools, Allied Technologies positioned itself to help Nigerian companies make the transition. The company assisted organisations in setting up computers, connecting office systems, and deploying Microsoft technologies, according to Chukwujama.
In 2001, Chukwujama and his co-founder, Duke Obasi, renamed their company AlliedSoft as Nigeria’s telecom sector opened to new operators such as MTN Nigeria and Econet. The company began developing custom software for telecom operators, banks, and other large organisations.
AlliedSoft built systems such as SIM registration platforms and other business software to help organisations manage their operations more efficiently.
While working with these companies, Chukwujama noticed that many businesses struggled with managing their workforce and employee records. Sensing an opportunity, the company expanded into HR software development in 2004 as an additional service.
But building business software at the time came with major limitations. “When we started building technology, there was no cloud computing,” Chukwujama recalled.
At the time, deploying software was expensive and technically demanding. In 2004, a mid-range enterprise server such as a Dell PowerEdge or HP ProLiant could cost between $5,000 and $15,000 per unit, excluding the additional cost of server racks, cooling systems, and networking equipment.
For many medium-sized businesses, setting up a functional server room often starts at around $30,000. Companies also needed physical servers inside their offices, internal networks connecting branches, and dedicated IT teams just to keep business applications running.
The affordability gaps were glaring. Only large corporations could afford enterprise software infrastructure, including physical servers, internal computer networks, databases, internet systems, storage devices, and the IT teams that manage them. Smaller businesses were effectively shut out.
“The way software was built then required companies to keep physical servers inside their offices,” Chukwujama explained. “Businesses also needed internal networks, and larger companies had to connect multiple branches through wide area networks. It was expensive and difficult to manage.”
That began to change around 2010 with the global launch of Microsoft Azure and the arrival of the MainOne submarine cable in Nigeria, the country’s first privately-owned cable, which improved internet access and made cloud computing more practical for businesses.
Companies no longer needed to build expensive, diesel-powered server rooms inside their offices. Instead, they could host their systems in professional data centres such as MDXi and Rack Centre, where businesses shared the cost of industrial cooling, backup power, and internet infrastructure. The shift significantly reduced operating costs, in some cases by as much as 40%, while making software deployment faster and more reliable.
By 2015, Chukwujama realised the shift to cloud technology could no longer be ignored. Companies around the world were moving away from traditional client-server systems to cloud-native platforms delivered over the internet, forcing software companies to rethink how they built and delivered products.
“That was the conversation happening between 2010 and 2015,” he said. “Everybody had to decide whether to continue building software the old way or move fully into the cloud.”
His company chose the latter.
The business, which had previously operated as Allied Technologies and later Allied Software, evolved into Xceed365HR Limited in 2015, focused entirely on cloud-native HR software. A decade later, the company restructured again into Talpro Software, a broader software-as-a-service company with Xceed365HR as its flagship product.
“We are building the HR ecosystem infrastructure for Africa,” Chukwujama said.
That ambition comes as Nigeria’s enterprise software market grows increasingly crowded, with localised enterprise tech investments projected to exceed $2.45 billion by the end of 2023 as digital transformation accelerates. Global giants like SAP and Oracle remain dominant benchmarks for many large organisations, while newer startups continue to emerge across payroll, HR, and workplace management. At home, Xceed365HR is facing competition from Pade and Seamless HR.
But Chukwujama believes African businesses still face a deeper problem: most global enterprise tools were not designed for African realities.
“The paradigm has always been that technology is agnostic,” he said. “But what works globally does not always work here.”
That localisation challenge, he argues, extends beyond language or currency support.
Xceed365HR is designed to build around those complexities instead of ignoring them, according to Chukwujama.
The company is integrating directly with African fintech infrastructure so businesses can move seamlessly from HR workflows into payroll and payment systems without relying on multiple disconnected platforms, according to Chukwujama.
The next leap, however, may come from artificial intelligence.
While many software companies are still trying to bolt AI assistants onto existing systems, Chukwujama says Talpro rebuilt its upcoming platform version entirely around AI agents. The “V3” system, which would go live on June 1, allows employees to complete HR tasks conversationally through voice or text commands.
“You can simply open the app and say, ‘I want to go on leave,’” he explained. “The agent takes over from there.”
Behind the product ambition lies Chukuwjama’s belief about Africa’s economic future. He argues that one of Africa’s biggest challenges is productivity. For him, software is not just about automation; it is about improving how businesses function at scale.
“When we start seeing African companies becoming significantly more productive because of our software, and that contributes to improving Africa’s economic story, that’s success for me,” he said.
Yet building enterprise technology in Nigeria remains difficult. The country continues to struggle with an unstable electricity supply, with power generation still hovering between 3,000MW and 4,000MW nationwide.
At the same time, diesel prices climbed to about ₦1,892.50 ($1.38) per litre by mid-May, significantly increasing operating costs for businesses dependent on generators. Internet reliability also remains a challenge. Nigeria recorded 19,384 fibre-optic cable cuts in 2025 alone, averaging more than 2,400 incidents monthly, disruptions that continue to affect connectivity, uptime, and business operations for technology companies.
“The infrastructure challenge is massive,” he admitted. “Even electricity alone is almost impossible in some locations.”
Still, after nearly three decades in Nigeria’s technology industry, Chukwujama appears unfazed by the volatility. The company remains entirely self-funded, built without external venture capital, and continues to expand gradually across multiple African markets, including Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa.
For a founder who started building software before cloud computing even existed, survival itself may already be part of the story.
