IBM expands its office in Nigeria in anticipation of growth across west Africa
February 16, 2009
By Thabiso Mochiko
IBM was expanding its Nigerian operations from a sales and marketing office to a fully fledged operation to capture the expected west African growth, it said on Friday.
By expanding in Nigeria, IBM is looking to better service its clients in the country.
Mark Harris, the general manager of IBM sub-Saharan Africa, said Nigeria was an important market and expanding there would allow the company to benefit from expected expansions by companies including major banks in west Africa.
"From geographical expansion, Nigeria has always been a key market for us," he said. "Our customers are becoming pan-African players and were calling on IBM to provide them with services as they expand into other territories."
IBM has appointed Endy Chiakpo as the country general manager in Nigeria and west Africa. Chiakpo has been with IBM for 20 years, both in Nigeria and the US.
Harris said IBM would recruit Nigerian expatriates who had been working for IBM in other countries.
The company is looking at opening a call centre similar to the one in Johannesburg, which helps about 300 customers with technical problems.
Harris said there had been a demand for disaster recovery services from Nigerian clients and IBM was in discussions to "try and understand [Nigeria's] competency".
IBM has been operating in Africa for nearly 60 years. It has invested more than $120 million (about R1.2 billion at current exchange rate) in the continent in the past two years because of anticipated growth in the region. The investment includes an innovation centre as well as a software solutions lab in Johannesburg.
Last year IBM opened an Africa innovation centre to develop information technology skills. The group said at the time that it was considering building a software laboratory in South Africa to create and maintain commercial software.
"The sub-Saharan African market is poised for continued growth flowing from the development and expansion of telecoms networks, power grids and transport infrastructure," said Harris. The growth is underpinned by continued private and public sector infrastructure investments.
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