Besides, both Information Communications Technology (ICT) firms have also disclosed plans to establish a manufacturing plant in Nigeria to not only aid faster distribution of the products but enhance local content development.
Statistics from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reveal that PC penetration remains very low at 7 per 1, 000 Nigerians. Industry watchers are optimistic that the PC market has the prospects of growing exponentially in no distant time. According to them, it will be sustained by increasing awareness levels in the population, especially the youth, spurred by education, the internet and deliberate initiatives from stakeholders.
Nnamdi Nnoruka, chief executive officer, IT & C Networks, while unveiling the computers in Lagos, said that their presence in the country was a result of four years of testing of the Taiwanese PCs and relationship building with MSI. Nnoruka said that one of IT & C’s objectives was to take the computers into the consciousness of the Nigerian public, especially the young people, who were expected to like the brands, adding that the driving forces for the brand included it’s the quality, style and price advantages of the Taiwanese PCs over other computer brands.
To him, MSI, which manufactured in China, had full capacity to produce its computers from the mother board to other components.
“One of the reasons we selected MSI as our partner is the fact that most computer brands do not manufacture. They do not produce their own computers. They award contracts to manufacturers who produce these computers for them.
“We found a company with its own manufacturing outfit, a company that is grounded in the production of very high quality mother boards and because we have a mind to go into partnership with them for the purpose of manufacturing locally in Nigeria, we selected them.”
