Around five years back, Ghana started automating its tax revenue management system in collaboration with the World Bank. In three years, the country’s tax revenue doubled. The project was executed by a small Pakistani technology firm, InfoTech.
It was the company’s first job outside Pakistan. Ever since, it has expanded into several African, South American and Gulf countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iraq and Brazil, revamping their tax systems or rolling out citizen services. Today, its export revenues have surged to $40m a year, equal to its domestic turnover, and it has its offices in the UAE, Singapore, London and Saudi Arabia.
InfoTech is an IT (information technology) systems integrator and e-infrastructure provider, and specialises in tax revenue management and power transmission/distribution system automation, as well as in emerging payment systems.
InfoTech was born almost 20 years ago out of another firm that Naseer had set up in 1987 — South Technology and Services — offering automation solutions for the industry. “We were solutions providers in hardware, infrastructure and networks etc at that time. We were not really characterised as a systems integrator,” Naseer said.
“I re-branded South Technology as InfoTech in 1995. But for the next decade, we struggled to transform and position ourselves into different domains, and eventually emerged as a system integrator.”
Though the company aspires to be a leader in its space and grow globally, it has expanded organically in size. In spite of employing 300 people and turning over annual sales of $80m two decades after its formation, remains a significantly small venture when compared with neighboring India. Lack of official focus on the IT services industry, shortage of trained and skilled manpower, the country’s unfavourable perception, low usage of technology by government and private firms, and the absence of laws supporting mergers and acquisitions are believed to be responsible for the stunted growth of Pakistani companies and low exports.
