Samsung seeks new market in Africa

South Korean Electronics giant, Samsung has announced plans to increase its assembly plants in Africa, set up a research and development centre and increase its presence, in what is emerging as a renewed bid by multinationals to tap into Africa’s business potential.

“Africa is being hailed now more than ever, as a land of opportunity and Samsung is set to exploit this,” Mr Kwang Kee Park, Samsung electronics Africa president said on Wednesday at the second annual Africa Regional Forum in Nairobi.

Mr Park said the firm will develop local industry by establishing further knock-down plants (assembling plants) – where currently there are such plants in Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Senegal.

Recently it established the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy (SEEA), which was created to develop young leaders for Africa’s future.”

Four schools will participate in the pilot program.

Samsung intends to develop 10,000 electronics engineers in Africa by 2015.

The programme is running in South Africa, and is to be replicated in Kenya before the end of the year.

In partnership with a local university, the firm is setting up a Research and Development (R&D) centre in Kenya, as it strives to align its products to suit the African market.

According to Mr Park, the R&D centre in Nairobi, will be used to align future development of African products to withstand what he describes as the 'harsh conditions’ of the African market.

The firm has 22 such centres across the globe, but none in Africa.

The absence of Africa's Research and Development centre has stifled the firm’s ability to make products that meet the unique continent's expectations such as frequent power outages, thus reducing the lifespan of electronic products.

However, unique to the Samsung 2011 Africa Forum was an exhibition zone called “Built for Africa,” which showcased products specifically tailored for the region.

At the forum, the firm unveiled a range of new products—a new line of Full HD 3D televisions that come with rich interactive content via TV applications - the Samsung Smart TV.

Also it used the Nairobi event to unveil two new additions to its family of tablets, the GALAXY Tab 10.1 and GALAXY Tab 8.9.

In 2010, Samsung reported a 31 per cent growth in revenue for its Africa operations—Sh98.4 billion ($1.23 billion), contributing to the company’s Sh10.8 trillion ($135.8 billion) in global revenues.

It has extended its footprint in Africa from 15 countries in 2009 to 42 in 2010, its distributors from 32 to 80 as well as increasing their service centres from 18 in 2009 to 36 in 2010 respectively.

Mr Park said Samsung in Africa intends to become a $10 billion region by 2015, growing the market to the size of China’s.

To achieve this, he said the firm will start by more than doubling its 2010 growth to 63 per cent in 2011 and grow workforce to 5,000 people by 2015.

Other multinationals increasing their presence in Africa are Nokia, Google, Bharti Airtel (with last year’s buyout of 15 Zain Africa operations) and many others.