We’re building entrepreneurial skills with our leading networking website —Alex

At 29, Sowemimo Abiodun Alex, has not only become a big success in the ICT business world but has been able to provide employment  for Nigerians in his company, PageOmni.com, a multidimensional networking, advertising, marketing and communication services website. His founded PageOmni Technology Company, operators of the networking website which according to him is available to more than 500 million clients in more than 100 countries of the world proffering solutions to global business competitiveness that is beyond social media network. The young Managing Director, has other ICT subsidiaries. He is a recipient of many awards and a Nigerian to reckon with in ICT world. Excerpts:

How did you get the inspiration and motivation to drive this ICT project devt., PageOmni.com?

It was around 2010 that it all started. At times I would sleep and receive some ideas in my dreams. Some times I would be praying, the inspiration would come and I write it down.  And I realised my country was known for criminality, which I always felt bad about, and I believed I could create what could solve that area of the world’s biggest problem.

So, I have been able to create a website where you can post or search for jobs for free. You can promote and advertise your business, report security problems for free.  Right now, landlord can blacklist a tenant under property damage alert so that other landlords don’t go through what he has gone through.  If I want to give out my property to a new tenant I will first of all ask for his name and run a search on him and read remarks of former landlords about him and I will call the landlords to ask what happened, how it happened.  If his attitude is favourable to me, I will give him my property and if it is not, I decline.  This way, people will begin to comport themselves and not be unruly to other people especially in matters of landlord/tenant relationship.

Is this geared towards attitude change on the part of the people?

Yes!  When people begin to realise the consequences of their misbehaviour, bearing in mind that information about their bad and good behaviours now have a way of being documented on a networking website like PageOmni, they will change and behave well.  Our judiciary system is slow.  Today you can file a case before a court and it will be there for two, three years.  Now, we have created tenancy search platform.  This way we have what we call “Report bad tenant” platform where you share your experience with other landlords about your current or ex-tenants on PageOmni.com tenancy check platform.  By so doing you are helping other landlords and they too as they share experiences. Through today’s advancements in technology, landlords finally have the opportunity to protect their investment properties by using free tools provided by PageOmni.com.

You also have what you call auto theft platform, how does this work?

Before you buy a car, especially in Nigeria where used cars are scattered all over the places, you search the chassis number and engine number.  Even if the car has been dismantled into pieces in Ladipo market and you buy the part, there is a serial number, chassis number and the engine number and you send it on PageOmni.com.  If the car has been declared stolen it will bring out the history.  So, if your car is stolen, all you need do is to first and foremost report at your local police station and then go straight to PageOmni.com and input the police station you reported the case to.  When you come to PageOmni technology we contact the police station and ask, “Has this case been reported here?” If they tell us yes, we go ahead to activate and upload your post and declare the car as stolen based on the information you input in our database.  That is the case of auto theft.

There is also the property theft platform.  There are many people out there, their house helps would steal their Laptops, their Hi-pad and valued properties.  All these have got serial numbers on receipt.  When it is stolen, you input the serial number in our database under property theft. These are your properties.  So, if they had taken it to computer village to sell, anybody that wants to buy will search to determine whether it has been reported stolen or not. But the problem with Nigerians is that they will never go to police to report their stolen properties.  And we need to encourage all these things.

Apart from the ones you mentioned above, is there any aspect of social life your interventionist technology has also affected?

Yes! we have also been able to create technology for people to report crimes and violations such as tax evasion, illegal possession of weapons, rape or sex abuse and human trafficking.  We have been able to create this platform where crimes and violations in our society can be reported.  A policeman taking one way believing that he is above the law can be reported.  You can record that policeman with police vehicle, upload the video to crimes and violations platform.  It will get to the right channel through internet.

You mean this is also available on your own network?

It is available on pageomni.com.  And we have been able to create a page image for the younger generation.  Even the older generation too has such a page where they can upload pictures and videos of their weddings in our database and they can reach out to people.  Everything has been cateogorised in our different sections.  Again, we have also been able to create what is called page file. Page file is where you save your data instead of saving it on flash drive that you can misplace easily.  And you can retrieve your file anywhere you go in the world. We have been able to create an article page for students.  Anybody can write, share articles, essays.  You can also have your own profile page where you write your biography; what you do is to post your information on pageomni.com and this way. If I need a generator repairer, for instance, all I need is to go to the category of the person I want, their lists with profile. If I need a taxi, the process is done. We have over 200 strategic categories of all kind of occupations.

Could you let us into your achievements so far?

We have traffic and so far so good, with our e-marketing force, that is internet market, we have been able to capture almost all English speaking countries in the world in Africa, Europe and the Americas.  We are reaching out to other countries speaking Arabic, French, German and this is easy because our website is in different languages.  We have a language software which changes to whatever language of choice. We have launched a technology institute, PageOmni where we offer ICT courses and also launched a global data system of communication, Pagepedia which immortalise notable Nigerians’ biographies and achievements and to also showcase the best of Nigerians in the world and immortalise their achievements for future reference.