Dubbed the ‘Mark Zuckerberg of Africa’ by Forbes Magazine, Ghanaian Raindolf Owusu is a man who is trying to put West Africa on the global technology map.

Owusu through his software firm Oasis WebSoft has received awards from across the world for helping to develop the likes of an African-made operating system and web browser.

Oasis has a mission of creating advanced software with a focus on web applications, web sites and traditional GUI/console open source software.

But the company is also focused on helping West Africa compete from a technology perspective with the rest of the world.

Owusu has opened up to ITWeb Africa about his beginning, struggles and achievements in tech business.

VINCENT MATINDE: How did you get interest in ICT?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: My dad got us a computer when I was probably ten and it was running Windows 95. It was an amazing piece of hard ware since it could do everything from calculating, to showing movies and we could even play the prince of Persia game with it.

VINCENT MATINDE: What was you first ever project?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: I first learnt C++ and I remember my first project was a console grading software program that allows users to input their numericals marks from examination results and it returns a message to tell them if they were doing well or failing in school.

VINCENT MATINDE: How did Oasis Websoft come about?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: I fell more in love with computers as I grew up and started following the success stories of Bill Gate, Google guys ( Sergey and Larry ) and Steve Jobs. They all started their software companies very young and it inspired me to start up a company after my first year in the university since I lost so much interest in theoretical computer science as opposed to practical construction of software systems.

I decided that four years was too much time for me to only learn in the university. Africa is on the move, and software and technologies are a powerful tool to boost economic growth and poverty reduction. At Oasis our aim is to build home-grown software solutions to solve our own problems here in Africa. Oasis Websoft is not like a typical start-up that focuses on solely one product. Oasis Websoft works in three phases, we offer mobile app development , web development ( Software as a service ) and open source software solutions.

VINCENT MATINDE: Tell us more about the operating system you created and the browser. How different are they from what we have?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Anansi Operating system is a Linux distribution that you don’t have to buy Office (Word, Power-point, Excel etc.) separately. It comes with Libre Office pre-installed. You are free from Viruses and easy, icon-based desktop interface. It is an open source project we started and with the help of more code contributors we hope to add a bundle of educational tools targeting our educational system in Africa and possibly with a local language (Swahili etc.) keyboard layout.

Anansi web browser is a web browser we created because of the unstable internet access we get in Africa. When the internet is down you can tap into our offline features like the web camera and theme changer. It also has a download manager that helps you to download all your music, videos and files at a fast rate.

VINCENT MATINDE: What kind of reception did you initially get when launching your products?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Most people were amazed we launched such projects but it also sparked a lot of debates in developer mailing lists. The general reception was good and we have open sourced both projects for the software to evolve. Free software is free knowledge.

VINCENT MATINDE: What are the challenges of a young company taking on the big boys?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Funding is one of the main challenges. We fund our own projects since we started operations in July 2011 we have not had any form of investment from any VC or company. In Africa there is a problem; people still think Technology comes in a box like a camcorder, computer, laptop, iPad and so on. People don't visualize technology as a process or something we are going to build ourselves here in Africa this makes it difficult for them to understand, utilize or buy into some of the African technology innovations.

VINCENT MATINDE: How many downloads of the operating system and browser users are there currently?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Currently the web browser has surpassed 4,606 downloads on Softpedia alone http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Anansi-Browser.shtml and for the operating system the open source community has created torrent files and mirror links for the operating system so it’s hard to give an actual figure.

VINCENT MATINDE: Do you have any other products from the company?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Yes. Africapp is a cross platform and multicultural African App offering service. To serve the growing need of mobile users in Africa and Diaspora, this service is aimed at making the developers’ ecosystem more viable and providing registered developers a renowned platform to showcase their apps and get paid.

We also built Dr Diabetes a web application that aims to educate Ghanaians on the adverse effects of diabetes and also to allow them to fill up a questionnaire that predicts their status online. In this age a lot of governments invest monies on eradicating illness like AIDS and tuberculosis but diabetes is a slow poison thus killing so many people in a year. Oasis WebSoft took this upon itself to raise the awareness of diabetes via this web app. We have other products kindly go to our website http://oasiswebsoft.com/ for more.

VINCENT MATINDE: What awards and achievements have you made during your journey to change the African tech scene?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: In March 2012 the Free software and Open Source foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) awarded me as a Guido Sohne fellow in recognition of my continuous use and support for open source technologies. I am currently featured in the November 2012 issue of Forbes Africa Magazine dubbed “Mark Zuckerburg of Accra”.

In August 2013, I was honored as one of the three award recipients of Ideas Awards 2013 by Legacy and Legacy. The award focuses on three Ghanaian achievers under 40 years who have championed a cause that they need not have pursued, but which ultimately proved beneficial to the wider society.

I have been nominated for this year's Ghana UK Based Achievement (GUBA) Awards for the RLG Development Award. Winning this award will be a morale booster for us, other budding young African entrepreneurs and the huge number of youth who need to be attracted to careers in Technology.

VINCENT MATINDE: How big is the company currently? How many employees?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: We are currently 5 with four based in our office in Ghana and one in the USA.

VINCENT MATINDE: Is the company making any money?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Yes we make money from our web development services, SAAS, consulting and mobile apps development.

VINCENT MATINDE: What advice would you give to upcoming techies across the continent?

RAINDOLF OWUSU: Ask God to direct your ways, be humble and do not restrict yourself creatively. Learn new technologies and always fail harder. Finally do not hide in your room for months to build robust software, launch your product early in other to get the feedback you need to perfect your product. Reject status-quo. It doesn’t work anyway.