This is the story behind the emergence of Slot Systems Limited and founder, Mr Nnamdi Ezeigbo who contributed hugely to Tecno, Infinix and Itel phones.
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You have probably bought a phone from Slot Systems Limited. You have probably used a Tecno or Infinix phone. But you may not know Mr Nnamdi Ezeigbo, the founder and CEO of Slot Systems Limited.
This man, from a very humble background who used to sell bread as a child after school hours to help his family raise money; who couldn’t further his education for four years after secondary school education, and had to work to raise money to pay his school fees.
He graduated as an Electrical engineer but two years after graduation, he was stuck at home, jobless.
One day, he told himself, “You have to do something to keep yourself busy”. So he decided to learn Computer Engineering. He went to a friend who owned a small computer shop and worked under him as an apprentice for six months.
He acquired the expertise and then set out on his own, sharing a space with another friend in 1998. With competence and integrity, he endeared himself to his customers and built a reputation as a good computer repairman.
One day, an old customer came to see him and said to him,“I want you to continue fixing my computers but I want you to operate in a bigger and more serene location. I will help you out”. The customer soon returned with some printers and said, “Sell these printers, make your profit and use it to get a better place”.
With the proceeds from the sales, Mr Nnamdi rented a bigger space at the cost of N180,000. At that time, Nigerians were buying Smartphones in droves. But because of unstable network service by different gsm companies, people were buying more than one phone to use with multiple sim cards.
One day an idea flashed through Nnamdi’s mind: “Why not come up with a phone that has space for two sim cards rather than one?”. He went to China and shared the idea with a former staff of the Bird Phone company.
Tecno was conceived. Nnamdi designed the first Tecno phone: Tecno T101. But consumers didn’t accept the brand.. It was viewed as the phone of the poor.
Nnamdi did more research and worked on the Tecno device. He came up with a better version: Tecno T201 and invested money in marketing despite the low acceptability.
In 2008, with the economy going down, the middle class in Nigeria began looking for alternatives to expensive smartphones. They started buying and using Tecno phones. That was the turning point for Slot Systems.
Tecno went on to birth Infinix and Itel. And from a humble computer repairman, Nnamdi became a multimillionaire businessman, running one of the popular brands in Nigeria with 60 outlets across the country.
On the subject of wealth creation, Nnamdi Ezeigbo says: “If you want to create wealth, you need Capability, Strategy and Capital”
When next you come across a Slot Systems outlet, remember the story of Mr Nnamdi Ezeigbo, and be inspired to keep pushing till you get to your desired destination at the top.
Originally posted 2021-08-06 10:23:52.