A Kenyan IT firm, Techno Brain Ltd, has acquired the intellectual property (IP) rights of a customs and tax software from a British company at a cost of Sh683 million, giving it ability to customise the system to its local clients’ needs.
Techno Brain Ltd previously had a consultancy agreement with Crown Agents — the owners of the software.
Manoj Shanker, the CEO Techno Brain, however, said
the partnership did not allow the company to interfere with the
software’s coding, which made it impossible to customise the software to
their clients’ needs.
Under the deal, Techno Brain will serve the former Trips suite software clients across the globe.
The software’s core development team will also
transition to Techno Brain. This will bring in a fresh pool of
specialised talent that Techno Brain could have found difficult to poach
without the deal.
The team will be stationed at Techno Brain’s office
in Sutton, United Kingdom. The customs and revenue software mainly
targets governments and their agencies as it supports delivery of
e-services to taxpayers.
Techno Brain is among Kenyan IT firms that are
making inroads into the continent and are now spreading their footprints
globally. Other locally grown IT multinationals include Craft Silicon,
Cellulant and Seven Seas.
“Customs is at the heart of the global trade
network. Our goal is to have the broadest and best portfolio of
solutions to improve trade facilitation and strengthen public financial
management. The acquisition is a perfect fit with that strategy,” said
Mr Shanker.
Techno Brain has operations in 19 countries in
Africa, with offices in UK, USA, Dubai and India. In Kenya, the firm
offers off-the-shelf ICT solutions, ICT training and business process
outsourcing services to NGOs, governments and businesses.
The firms’ solution portfolio offerings include
passport issuance system, central motor vehicle registration system and a
help line platform for local and international clients.
“This partnership will leverage Crown Agents’
considerable tax and customs domain expertise together with Techno
Brain’s global technology delivery capability to deliver outstanding
outcomes for revenue authorities across the world,” said Ken Coveney,
Crown Agents chief financial officer.
The potential of local IT firms has attracted the
eyes of the government, which together with foreign partners such as
Netherlands Trust Fund, are providing financial and market support.
The firms that will benefit from this programme including Techno Brain, Digital Divide Data and Data Science Ltd which will be linked to new markets through facilitating business to business (B2B) matchmaking events in Europe and Africa as well as participation in trade fairs organised in Kenya and target information technology and services (ITES) markets.
These firms mainly offer IT-enabled services such as research,
software development, animation and social media campaigns or marketing
to third party firms.
Other firms that have been listed to benefit from
the fund include Savvy Media Kenya, Lynxbits Global Ltd and ENI Systems
Africa among others.
