" ITREALMS: Technology adaptation: Ghana compares with Nigeria

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Technology adaptation: Ghana compares with Nigeria

Remmy Nweke

Country Manager for West Africa at the American Power Conversion (APC), Mr. Charles Iyo, has thumped up Ghana as better positioned to adapt easily to technologies than Nigeria.

Speaking exclusively to our correspondent in Lagos, he said that this was evident in the methodology and long time it takes to accept and adapt to new technologies within the two major forces in the West African market.

He also alluded to this saying it was behind the elongated period of introduction of new products in the sub-region, and particularly in Nigeria.

In addition, Mr. Iyo said that an average Ghanaian businessman would prefer to adhere to the rules of the game while his Nigerian counterpart would opt to cut corners in order to increase profit.

As said by him, market experience by his firm in the sub-region also showed that in Nigeria there are lots of middlemen between the end-users and product manufacturers or even major dealers, which make it hard to implement some warranty.

According to him, instead of paying the start off fees, which he said is not much, to automatically authenticate warranty, average Nigerian businessmen, he said, would prefer to do it himself or worse still they are assured by their middlemen cum consultants that they would take care of the start off fees without living up to the billing.

“In fact, in Nigeria, they would want every thing for free,” he asserted.

But if it is in Ghana, the fellow, he said, would like to take the due process in order to be in the good books of the manufacturer and facilitate the product to serve him better.

This, therefore, places them (Ghana) better in understanding the technology of any kind easily and at the same time attracting investors to the country as well as to themselves.

Mr. Iyo also spoke on the firm’s core market offering of the moment, which is InfraStruXure, saying that it is still at the introductory stage.

Stressing that APC is gaining grounds in its marketing strategies in the sub-region, just as he called on businessmen in West Africa to always adhere to the rules of the game so as to optimise manufacturer’s warranty.

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