Self-drive behind success of software development entity

Programmer and website designer James Panaito. PHOTO | SAMMY KIMATU

What you need to know:

  • James Panaito’s encounter with a computer mouse saw his career turn from music to programming, setting him on the course to establish a growing IT firm

When Money paid him a visit at his office, the founder of Webmasters Kenya, James Panaito, was just settling down after a lengthy meeting with World Bank officials.

He had gone to present a proposal that, if adopted, could see all the processes regarding business permit acquisition in Kenya automated using his software, Permitflow.

The programme was first implemented by the defunct City Council of Nairobi. It has since been replicated in Kigali, Tehran, Kristen in Kosovo, and Dakar in Senegal. There are plans to roll it out in Lesotho and Iraq.

Besides Permitflow, Mr Panaito says Webmasters Kenya has also developed e-registry software. Under the auspices of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), e-registry was first implemented by the Treasury in 2008 to enable traders to know and easily acquire requisite licences to run investments both locally and internationally.

The software has been implemented by the Rwanda Development Board and the Zambia Development Agency, thanks to the good relationship his firm has established with the IFC. Currently, the programme has caught the eye of Kosovo’s city of Kristen.

But Mr Panaito’s meteoric rise has not been smooth. To create his entity, it has taken a lot of sacrifices.

With a company recording over Sh20 million monthly turnover, it is easy to forget one’s humble beginnings. But not this entrepreneur. He remembers his dream 12 years ago.

As a teenager growing up in Busia town, he believed his breakthrough would come through music. But his plan took a different path a year later when he came to Nairobi, where he bumped into a computer.

Mr Panaito says he first touched a computer mouse at an NGO office where he worked as a support staff. He fell in love with the computer, and even more with what it could do.

Whenever he had a chance, he would train himself on computing. Soon, much of his salary would be used in the cyber cafes, sharpening his skills on website design and programming through online classes.

“The truth is, and specifically with programming, you don’t get them in school,” says the 30-year-old. Mr Panaito, whose lack of tertiary qualifications mirrors that of such tech gurus as Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, thinks that there is little in terms of skill that a learner gets from school.

“In school they only give you about 10 per cent of the necessary skills. Truth be told, even the teachers do not know how to programme,” he says.

COMPLEX PROJECTS

To get it right in programming, he advises budding programmers to be self-driven and tenacious.

However, this is not to imply that Mr Panaito’s staff comprise college dropouts. Far from it. Webmasters Kenya has some of the most talented and highly-skilled programmers in the country. Having degree-holders, he says, is critical for the complex projects which the firm handles.

For entrepreneurs planning to venture into the software business, “they should do a lot of research.”