About
Built in Tamale, for the way Ghanaian firms work
Docavra is built and run by Afatech Enterprise, a software company in Tamale. It exists because the systems sold to firms here keep lists of matters and clients, and stop there.
How it started
Why I built it
In 2021, I did my national service at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in Tamale, Ghana. I was assigned to the Prosecutions Department, where I worked under a lawyer who became my boss.
We had an ERP system at SSNIT that supported our work, but I noticed something else. A lot of the department's day-to-day work still involved physical documents, files, correspondence, and paperwork. My boss was constantly moving between these things, trying to keep everything together and make sure nothing was overlooked.
I remember looking at all of that and thinking there had to be a better way to work.
The interesting thing is that, at the time, I wasn't even a software developer. I was just beginning to learn programming. I could see something that I thought technology should be able to improve, but I didn't have the knowledge or experience to build a solution.
So I didn't do anything about it. I simply carried that observation with me.
Fast-forward to 2025.
The team
Who stands behind it
A small team, with each part of the work held by more than one person.
To be named
Backup engineer
Has the code and the runbooks, and covers support and releases when the founder is away.
To be named
Backup engineer
A second engineer with the same access, so the cover never rests on one person.
To be named
Legal adviser
A practising lawyer who checks the workflows against how firms really work and reads the terms before firms do.
To be named
Operations and finance
Keeps the company funded, paid and accountable, so the product's running costs are never in doubt.
The company
Afatech Enterprise
- Registered name
- Afatech Enterprise
- Location
- Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana
Continuity
What protects the firm
Every partner asks what happens to the firm's records if the company behind its system falters. Here is the answer, in the order it matters.
- 01
Each firm has a database of its own
The application is shared, the records are not. Every firm's matters, money and documents sit in a database and a document store of their own, never pooled with another firm's. Enterprise firms can have their own servers as well.
- 02
The firm's data leaves whole, whenever it asks
Every record, document and its full history is handed over in open formats the firm can import into another system. That holds if the firm moves on, and it holds if the company ever stops trading.
- 03
Everything is written down
Every module is documented so that an engineer who has never met the founder can deploy, back up, restore and change the system. A part of the product is not finished until that documentation exists.
- 04
Named engineers stand behind it
Two backup engineers hold the code, the documentation and the access to run the service, so support and releases go on when the founder is away. They are listed on this page.
Support
How support works
Every day, around the clock, by WhatsApp, phone or email, with the cover for absences written down.
Around the clock
Support is open every day, at any hour. A reply comes within four hours, and anything that stops the firm working gets a fix or a workaround the same day.
What is included
Fixes to anything that does not work as documented, every update, and help by WhatsApp, phone or email for the people using it. Changes the firm asks for beyond that are quoted first.
People who know the system
You talk to the engineers who build it, not a ticket queue. The numbers are below and on the contact page.
When the founder is away
The backup engineers cover the same response times, and the firm is told in advance. Nothing waits for someone to come back.