STRIDE Ethiopia 2024 Expo was organized at the Science Museum from 18 to 26 May 2024. More than 150 private and governmental tech companies exhibited technological products and innovations. Tech companies engaged in various technological fields showcased technological products. The products of these companies mainly focused on solving societal problems and increasing productivity by easing the traditional way of doing business.
A lot of tech companies engaged in the digital technology sector exhibited their products in the expo. Companies engaged in software development, data centers, digital payment mechanisms, e-commerce and other digital platforms were the dominant companies that participated in the STRIDE Ethiopia 2024 Expo.
Among these companies that participated in the expo were Smart Link Properties PLC which presented its tech products, Smart Rental System, and Nugizu applications. Smart Rental System is a modern building administration system that helps mall owners to administer the rented rooms easily while the Nugizu is an E-commerce platform.
Yonas Beyene is the founder and CEO of Smart Link Properties PLC. He had a short stay with The Ethiopian Herald while this reporter was visiting the STRIDE Ethiopia Expo at the Science Museum. Yonas stated that his company was founded 14 years ago as a proprietorship company. Since 2022 Smart Link Properties has transformed into a PLC. During the initial period, the company was focused on website development with limited capacity and targeted small companies.
Parallel to website development for companies, after two years of its establishment, Smart Links developed a new application, Smart Building Administration System, according to Yonas. The Smart Building Administration application developed by the company was the most known product of Smart Link Properties and according to Yonas this system was developed 12 years ago. During the initial years, the company provided mall administrators with the product to use it for free as a promotion as most malls used manual systems to administer the business activities of the malls.
Despite the company providing the app for mall owners to use for free, due to lack of awareness and limited infrastructure, it took time for the system to penetrate the market. “After a year, one company found near to our officer started to use it to administer its mall. At that time, the company was paying 3,000 birr annually,” Yonas stated adding that the company was investing in website development which helped the company to survive. As to him, the company waited years to earn income from the Smart Building System.
“I think two years later, Haile Gebresilassie’s company, “Haile and Alem International” started to use the Smart Building Administration system. Since then, the smart mall administration application has been providing services in Addis Ababa and is working with hundreds of building owners in Addis Ababa,” Yonas told The Ethiopian Herald. The Smart Building Administration System, according to Yonas, aims to ease the management and administration system of big malls as they rent many rooms/classes. The application is a smart rental administration system that helps mall owners administer their malls in a modern way.
According to Yonas, it is tough to manage big malls with hundreds of rented rooms with a manual system. As to him, the Smart Mall Administration system helped the owners to manage the payment system for rented rooms of the buildings easily as it properly incorporates all the necessary things within one system. In addition, it registers invoices about the details of the register about the rooms and the company or individuals renting the room. The first system was easy and targeted only limited tasks, according to the CEO.
Through the process, the system developed its tasks as building owners want to fully manage the mall administration through the system. “By gathering the feedback from customers to include other tasks that were managed manually, the company included additional tasks and services to the system,” as to him. In addition to the feedback from its customers, the company by itself also continued working to improve the system.
The company continued improving the system by adding new versions. According to the CEO, through continued improvement efforts, currently, the system reached its 14th version. Yonas stated that the system is being updated through two means. One, due to the technological developments the company wants to incorporate new technology to develop and improve the system. Secondly, to include new features mainly to diversify the functioning of the system. For that reason, the system was updated almost 14 times, and it is on its 14th version currently.
For Yonas, currently, the system is familiar and hundreds of big malls are using the system to manage their rented rooms. “Currently, the malls are using the application through an annual subscription, and it solves serious problems in administrating buildings” Yonas added. As to him, it helps mall owners to effectively administer the activities of their malls and solve the problems they were facing during the manual system. Hence, it makes building management easy and efficient and creates smooth relations between the owners and the rented occupants.
It bridges the gaps in the manual system. Especially, it helps mall owners to collect their income from the rented rooms properly and timely. In addition, it eases the payment mechanism for water, electricity, and cleaning services of rented rooms as it manages the whole process. It properly manages the activities of the building and creates trust between the owners and the rented occupants. In addition, for example, one company or person may rent several rooms and it was difficult to manage such systems in the manual system. However, the Smart Building Administration system eased the overall system as it registered each room properly.
According to him, the application is also suitable for real estate developers and different real estates are using the application for selling rooms. In addition, car rental service providers are also using the app.
Smart Link Properties also developed an E-commerce site called, Nugizu. Nugizu is an Amharic word that means “Come and Buy.” Yonas stated eight years ago, his company created the Addis Look system, which provided services about information malls and shops and their services online. It was to help beneficiaries to easily access shops and their services online. Later, by improving the system the company developed the Smart Gojo System which was like e-ecommerce.
“During COVID-19, we realized that e-commerce is becoming popular by society to shop for goods and services. Hence, in 2020 we developed the Nugizu platform,” Yonas stated adding the new platform aims to become a popular e-commerce marketplace in Ethiopia. “We are working to make it a big online market (e-commerce) service provider platform like Amazon and other well-known international platforms” he reiterated. Currently, Nugizu is serving a lot of people and people are opening shops on the platform.
Smart Link Properties’ next plan, according to Yonas is to develop and expand the products. The company is working to develop the Smart Building Administration system to a web-based level. As to Yonas, the company is aiming to provide services to other African countries in this regard. “Through creating a controlling mechanism from the center, the company targets to work provide the service even out of Ethiopia. The new version of the system will be fully completed by the end of August,” the CEO noted.
Similarly, Nugizu E-commerce platform also targets the African continent. As to him, the e-commerce platform is well well-developed, and “our strategic plan is to become an African online marketplace.”
As to Yonas, the STRIDE Ethiopia Expo helped his company to promote its products and to create linkages with other technology companies.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 31 MAY 2024
