ROHEEN BERRY
ROHEEN BERRY
ROHEEN BERRY is the Managing Director of Contec Global. He was educated at Harvard University and has been instrumental in expanding the Group’s activities beyond Nigeria into other African countries, as well as developing a niche IT hub in Dubai and broadening the operating base of the Group as a whole. Roheen splits his time between Africa and the UK.
Established in 1984 and headquartered in London, the Contec Global Group has a presence in Europe, Asia and Africa.
As a company established on the platform of E-governance and Smart Technologies, Contec Global is amongst the most experienced independent technology and systems organisations operating in developing countries. Today, the Group is engaged globally in providing integrated system based solutions in the fields of secure technologies and mobile telephones and project management programmes in the fields of energy, infrastructure and hospitality.
Education
Roheen Berry was educated at Sherwood College in India and the Kennedy School, Harvard. Growing up in the UK, Nigeria and India, he joined the family business, Contec Global, in 2009, following a period of employment at the Wellington Investment Management group. Contec Global is a diversified business operating out of India, Dubai and West and Central Africa, primarily but not exclusively specialising in the provision of secure document solutions to governments. These solutions embrace anything from passports, ID cards, driving licences to land title deeds based on the latest biometric technology and underpinned by the collation, maintenance and secure storage of underlying data.
Career
Between 2009 and 2012, he was instrumental in marketing the group within Africa outside its host country, Nigeria, engaging with senior politicians, civil servants and heads of state.
During this period, he was particularly adept at visiting frontier market countries in West Africa such as Gambia, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Burundi and South Sudan winning substantial contracts for the firm in Niger, Burundi and South Sudan.
Building on his experiences growing up in Africa, he was able to display an acute knowledge of the difficulties facing emerging market governments in handling issues relating to security documentation and border security, as well as a sympathetic understanding of the cultural sensitivities needed to confer and negotiate with senior figures in African political life.
A key driver in the success of this period was his development of a BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) business model of public/private partnership that appealed to governments desperately short of public finance and revenue to pay for necessary infrastructure projects.
Through this model, he offered to self-finance the IT projects he was marketing to governments, recouping the initial investment through the share of revenue generated by the sale of documents to the general public.
In this way, governments were able to access some of the most up to date security technology available globally while at the same time enjoy additional sources of revenue.
A prime example of this was the Burundi passport (introduced in 2010) which was awarded most advanced of all East African passports in 2012.
Personal
Roheen Berry was educated at Sherwood College in India and the Kennedy School at Harvard University.Growing up in the UK, Nigeria, and India, Roheen joined Contec Global in 2009, following a period of employment at the Wellington Investment Management group.Between 2009 and 2012, Roheen was instrumental in expanding Contec Global from Nigeria to greater Africa by engaging with senior politicians, civil servants and heads of state. During this period, he was particularly adept at visiting frontier market countries in West Africa such as Gambia, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Burundi and South Sudan winning substantial contracts for the firm in government based secure technology.
Following his success in growing the reach of @Contec Global, Roheen was appointed Managing Director of Contec Global in 2012.
Since his appointment, Roheen has been instrumental in expanding the secure document business into East Africa (Malawi and Kenya) and West Africa (Sierra Leone), while simultaneously focusing on new opportunities to diversify their work into biometric technology, agriculture, green energy, transportation, and telecommunication.Roheen
has also taken a keen interest in philanthropic projects in Africa to complement the firm’s business interests. Key
examples have included donating tablets and mobile smartphones to Chibok survivors in Nigeria in 2017, donating to the kidney care unit at Centre Medico Chirurgical de Kinindo in 2014, sponsoring Burundi’s athletics team at the 2012 London Olympics, providing computer equipm[2][3] ent for schools in Burundi in 2007, and assisting in the opening of the Burundi Embassy in London.[4]