This week, Nigeria’s ecommerce platform, JUMIA debuted PlayStation 4 in Nigeria, so I spoke to Ore Odusanya, Head Of Gaming & Electronics JUMIA Nigeria and Afam Anyinka, the company’s
Head of Offline Marketing on their thoughts about PS4 and gaming in Nigeria.
Afam Anyika
Is the PS4 exclusive to JUMIA Nigeria?
No, it’s not an exclusive deal. It’s just that we worked hard to be the first to have it.
What did you do to get it first?
We just walked up to the supplier and we said we wanted it. It wasn’t a magic. We just talked to the supplier ahead of time and we did the proper planning to ensure we have the right logistics. It’s just something being done – our performance and operations; we are always excellent and always want to be the first in everything we do and to satisfy the customer.
What about the gaming competition holding today (Saturday)?
It’s on Saturday and the venue is Freedom Park in Lagos at 10am. It would hold during the Nigeria Gaming Conference.
From the sale of consoles like the PS4 on JUMIA Nigeria, do you think Nigerians are as enthusiastic about games as their counterparts in America who bought all the PS4 within 24 hours.
In all fairness, looking at the numbers I would say Nigerians are really catching up. From the central sale you would see that we are catching up, but the problem is a lot of people don’t know where to get these things, that is why we are partnering with Nigeria’s gamers’ conference so that people that are really passionate about the games know that if they come to JUMIA, they can get all the latest games.
We’ve decided to get an interface to get these products to the end users. To answer the question, yes, but a lot of Nigerians don’t know where to get these games hence the gaming competition.
Ore Odusanya
What are the basic differences between the PS4 and the former version?
First is connectivity. PS3 only had Wi-Fi, but for the PS4 it has Bluetooth so you can connect it to iPhone, iPad and android devices. Another good thing about PS4 is sharing. You can share songs, games, and others. You can also download games on it which the PS3 didn’t have. It comes with a larger memory. You can place it sideways, better graphics and has an internal processor. It is a better gaming system and it’s not just for playing games, you can store all your movies, songs and others. S it’s a complete entertainment system and not just a gaming system.
In terms of price competitiveness, how do you think the product would perform in the Nigerian market?
PS4 is more widely accepted and Nigerians are more open to playing PlayStation games generally. The new Xbox is not out officially so we can’t say much about it. But generally, the average Nigerian gamer would go for PlayStation over Xbox.
Number of players
We are expecting about 300 and the ultimate prize is PS4
Will you be providing PS4 for all the players to play with?
We are still trying to put together the details of the tournament but the semifinals and the final matches would be played on PS4, I’m not sure about other stages.
