The Ghanaian many call the 'Black Bill Gates' receives top Commonwealth position

John Apea

The executive chair of SOFTtribe, Ghana's largest software company, Herman Chinery-Hesse has been installed as the Commonwealth Chair for Business and Technology Initiatives in Africa.

Chinery-Hesse, a man known across Africa as the "Black Bill Gates", has been a techpreneur (entrepreneur in technology) for more than two decades.

He was out-doored to his new post as part of many activities to herald the Commonwealth which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year of 2019.

The Africa Head of The Royal Commonwealth Society, John Apea stated, “The Commonwealth theme for 2019, is ‘A connected Commonwealth’ is most appropriate as we outdoor Herman to lead out technology and business initiatives”.

As such, Apea went on: "We need jobs for the youth, businesses that compete internationally, we need functioning healthcare systems and a literate population. These drivers of any economy all sit on the bedrock of technology and business. I believe that we are in good hands”.

The BBC reported that close to 20 years ago, Chinery-Hesse decided to abandon his comfortable life in the UK to prove to sceptical friends that his native Ghana was a land of opportunity waiting for entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas.

With no start-up capital and little in the form of personal savings, and no equipment other than his old personal computer Chinery-Hesse relied on his determination and creative talent for writing software programs.

Today, SOFTtribe has become the leading business management software developer in the country, providing services to over 250 highly-reputed customers, including Guinness, Nestle, Unilever and the Ford Foundation.

SOFTtribe is also a Microsoft development partner.

Herman Chinery-Hesse is a Ghanaian software entrepreneur and the founder of SOFTtribe, the largest software company in Ghana.He is popularly known around the world as the “Black Bill” .Chinery-Hesse also made the list of 15 Black STEM Innovators.???????? #proud capital city of the ???? pic.twitter.com/S697krXZSY
— GHANA FACTS???????????????? (@GHANAFACTZ) May 17, 2018