Meet Jephtah Uche: The Technology Mastermind Behind Kippa – The Financial Management App Transforming African Businesses

In this interview with Naija News, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kippa, a bookkeeping app, Jephthah Uche talks about his background and what inspired him to pursue a career in tech. He also discusses how he met his co-founders, the role he plays at Kippa, and the company’s goal to help small businesses in Africa record their sales, expenses and credit transactions digitally. Additionally, he talks about the challenges of being the only technical co-founder in a team of three, the incredible team Kippa has been able to assemble, and how they achieved it.

What was growing up like?

I grew up in a close-knit family of 5 in Lagos state, Nigeria. A family which I would now describe as comfortable, at the time I probably would have described us as rich but looking back, comfortable just seems like the right word. Growing up, I was naturally the most inquisitive person in the house. I was also a middle child so that comes with its own peculiarities. My parents were super passionate about academics and education, and it showed in the things they invested. My Dad literally bought me books as gifts when I impressed him so I learned how to bury myself in books very early in life. I also performed very well academically, always top of my class and that was relatively easy because everything at home made you want to learn more and be better.
I was also very technical as my curiosity would always get me to dismantle things and assemble them back. I would even change the position of items in the house because I felt they had stayed too long in the same position.

What inspired you to go into tech?
Two things mainly: The men in my family predominantly went into two professions: military and construction. I have a lot of relatives today who are in those fields, but one thing I saw was how this constantly took them away from home for weeks or even months. I didn’t want that life, I wanted a life where I was very much present in the lives of my loved ones. My search for a career where I could have that yet make enough money ended up in my picking computer sciences as a choice career path. I wanted a career where I would wake up inspired to go to work because I deeply care about what I am doing but also one that didn’t take me away from my family. Growing up we had a computer room with a desktop computer in it where we could go try all manner of things like graphic design, speed typing, playing computer games etc. I accidentally stumbled on a textbook on basic programming when I was 13, I followed the instructions given in the textbook to try my hands out on a program, and It worked. The satisfaction from getting that to work was a feeling I craved to have over and over again. Well, going into software was a career that ensured I could feel that as much as I wanted, so I went for it.

How did you meet your current co-founders?
I met Kennedy and Duke while representing my University in a British parliamentary debate competition in Accra, Ghana. They were also representing their institutions then. We all competed against each other but we left the tournament as friends.

What is Kippa and what does it do?
At Kippa, we aim to help small businesses in Africa run more sustainably and profitably. Today, small businesses in Africa transact over $3.5T annually, 95% of which is in cash. Our first tool (the bookkeeping app) helps all small businesses record their sales, expense, and credit transactions in an app, allowing them to get 3x faster repayments on debts outstanding.
Small business owners are drowning in manual accounting (using pen and paper), spending over 10 hours/week and $50/month manually adding entries and chasing debt. Kippa solves all of that by giving you a digital ledger to record your transactions and automate reminders to and collections from your debtors.

How many of these businesses use Kippa today?
We currently have 250,000+ businesses using the Kippa bookkeeping software today to manage their businesses.

Can you tell us more about your role at Kippa, what does the day to day entail?
At Kippa, I currently serve as the Chief Technology Officer, and what that really means is that I sit right at the intersection of business and technology within the Kippa team. I translate business needs into technical strategies to help drive the business forward and I align technical needs with business goals to help keep the team focused on what’s more important per time. So, in essence, I am the only technical person you’d find on the business table and the only business person you’d find on the technical table. hahaha

You and your co-founders started out with Kippa just between the three of you, you were the only technical co-founder, the two others couldn’t code…how was it developing the solution being the only technical person on the team?
So, while my co-founders didn’t code, I think they made my job easier in so many ways. I always used to think that building a product would be easier if the co-founders were all technical people but that’s honestly not the case. The perspectives supplied by my non-technical co-founders were quite essential in the progress we’ve made. Now, that doesn’t mean writing the code and dealing with all the technical complexities that comes with building can be undermined, on the contrary It was definitely a tough tough job building it out, and it’s still a tough job leading that front till today.

From what we have seen and heard, it seems that Kippa has been able to assemble an incredible team of talented people, technical and business execs alike. What is the secret behind achieving that?
Yes, you really can’t talk about Kippa without the amazing team behind all we are doing today. I feel we have been extremely lucky. I see each and every person on the team as partners. I don’t know if there are secrets per-se that other founders do not know but if there is something I have learnt in the past couple of years is that beyond money, people who are really passionate about what they do really want to buy into a clear vision. So, if you have a solid vision, a detailed roadmap on how to get there, and a clear way you communicate this, people are likely going to buy into it and come partner with you

You have people who work with you at Kippa from different parts of the world, what does it feel like leading a global team at 25?
In a lot of ways, it is a huge opportunity for me to learn. I have always been blessed with opportunities of leadership right from elementary school through to college, somehow I have always been identified as someone who is capable of leading amongst my peers, so in terms of preparation, I can actually say I have been well prepared for this in that sense. A lot of my career experience has also been with global teams, so that is also not a new experience per-se. If there is something I have learnt, though, it is that you don’t hire people to tell them how to do their job. As a leader, your job is to establish what needs to be done and, very importantly, “why” it needs to be done…then you look to your team to guide on the “how”. That’s why you hired them; they are the experts. Once you realize that you spend time telling your team the “how” every now and again,  you may want to reassess things. Do you have teammates or just subordinates you order around?

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?
Noooooo, hahaha…I actually never wanted to be one. I had a weird sense of entrepreneurship, I always saw it as this thing where you bear all the risk and wake up everyday super worried about if your business would live or die. I didn’t want that at all. Also, growing up…I saw my Dad’s business crumble at some point, and how that affected our standard of living very directly so I really dreaded it. I am what you’d call an accidental entrepreneur but now that I am here, I am very sure this is where I’m meant to be. Nothing else would give me the same level of fulfillment.

Do you still actively code today?
Yes, I do. I don’t think I’d be stopping anytime soon.

So, what’s Kippa’s next big plan from here?
What a lot of people do not understand is this: Kippa is beyond the bookkeeping app. That is just our flagship product. Until the overarching vision of using technology to support how businesses start and run profitably is achieved, we have so much in store. A product we will be launching soon is called Kippa Start, a platform which would enable businesses to incorporate right from the comfort of their homes.