Emmanuel’s epiphany came when he started working in a small business alongside one of his brothers, a trained book-keeper. Seeing first hand the value of accurate accounting to track performance, profits, stock and expenditure, he realised the difference real-time records could make to business owners. In fact, half the small businesses launched in Africa fail because of poor book-keeping, a lack of inventory management and bad business practices.
Despite his reservations about computers, Emmanuel agreed to meet James Alituhikya, a software engineer and former student of Monica’s. Sitting at a laptop, they discussed the potential of an app or program that could put accounting software in the palm of business owners’ hands, so that if they couldn’t afford a book-keeper, they could still monitor their finances confidently.
“James believed in the idea straight away,” says Emmanuel. “Monica and I had always said we felt technology was built for the elite – that it eliminated people at the bottom of the pyramid. So together the three of us set out to change the system.”