The mastermind behind Aamra

Syed Farhad Ahmed

After graduating from foreign universities in the mid-1980s, two brothers came back to their country as per wish of their prominent accountant father: late SF Ahmed.

But neither of them agreed to join their father's profession of accounting. They wanted to start their own business. The father was a bit upset, but finally, he allowed their sons to follow their own dreams.

“Then the opportunity was in garment, so we started a business relating to apparel and textile trading before we ventured into information and communications technology in 1990,” Syed Farhad Ahmed, the youngest of the brothers, said after winning Bangladesh's first ICT award given by The Daily Star on Friday.

Now Ahmed is the managing director of Aamra Companies, a Bangladeshi group of companies with businesses in IT, outsourcing, textiles and apparel, and professional development.

For the last three decades, they have been at the forefront of technology products and solutions that include bulk internet connectivity, software and hardware services, and e-payment solutions.

Aamra's success has made Ahmed one of the two IT business persons of the year for 2015.

Total turnover of Aamra companies was Tk 1,600 crore last year, of which Tk 380 crore was generated from the ICT units. As of October, business growth from its ICT units was 25 percent, driven mainly by smart solutions.

They also created jobs for 1,250 people, of them 700 are professionals, and mostly are IT experts.