Recently, InnovationVillage had an interview with Chidi Okonkwo, Deputy General Manager (Nigeria). Please find the interview below
InnovationVillage (IV): What edge does TECNO has over other competitors in the Nigerian market apart from lower costs of products?
Chidi Okonkwo (CO): We are taking strength in the quality of products that we are providing; we are trying to create a lot of value in the products that we are putting in the hands of the final consumers. You will find a lot of local contents in the devices we are providing in Nigeria.
Our products are designed with Nigerian consumers in mind. We are strong in the African market because we understand the preferences and the consumer needs in the African market. Nigeria being a key market in Africa, we are paying a lot of attention to it.
In addition to it, you will find that we have one of largest network of service centers for mobile phones in the country. You need to take a trip to our facility at Opebi, Lagos and the one at Digital Square also in Lagos. We have very comfortable offices for the repair of defective products and we have a lot of spare parts for these devices in the country.
We are investing a lot in Nigeria to make sure we are creating value; we are focusing a lot of our research in the Nigerian market also. We are offering our customers very strong value propositions in the products that we put in their hands.
IV: You’ve partnered with Blackberry to have BBM preloaded on Tecno devices, what of indigenously developed apps?
CO: We have a lot of games, different versions of the Bible and Quran, local social network sites and Nigerian search engines that are preloaded on our devices.
IV: Which of your products is performing best in the market?
CO: A lot of our products are doing well in the market, a lot of our smartphone models are doing well. The Phantom series are all doing well, N3 and P3 all did well in the market. A whole lot of Tecno products are doing well in the market. The Phantom PAD is a fantastic product; it competes well among other similar products in the market.
We have smart models in various segments – low, middle and high-end segments. You will find that our products are highly anticipated in the Nigerian market, the models that we have in the market are preferred to other competitors’ devices.
IV: As you are producing high-end devices, you still need to further reinforce your stronghold of the low-end device market which, by the way, was where TECNO debuted in the Nigerian market. Is TECNO gradually shifting away from the low-end market?
CO: No we are not. As a matter of fact, our low-end models are doing well in the market unaided. We don’t give them a lot of marketing support but they are all doing well. We have a lot of feature models in the market, models that are below N5,000. These products are tightly priced so we do not spend much to promote these models, they come the way they are and our customers accept the products and are on sale everywhere.
We will continue to provide products that cover all segments in the Nigerian market.
