If you visit Ikeja, the light is on from 7pm till 6am and the communities are even thinking of extending the operation time beyond 5pm till 7pm now that there are street lights. It’s a solar-based technology so they are constantly on.
Tecno MD Speaks On Company’s New Move, Mobile Market In Nigeria
The TECNO group recently launched its ”Light up Ikeja” project at Ikeja computer village, Lagos. The mobile giant donated 88 high-end solar-powered streetlights installed by Arthur Energy Technology Ltd. Chidi Okonkwo, the managing director of the company speaks on the motive behind the gesture and the future of mobile market in Nigeria.
Kindly expatiate more on ‘the light up Ikeja’ project?
The ‘light up Ikeja’ project is the corporate social responsibility of TECNO. It is proven that private corporations with strong community focus in their business agenda tend to prosper better than the others. So this project is a reflection of our commitment to community development and that informed the reason we had to spearhead projects that would have lasting impact on the community.
Chidi Okonkwo, managing director TECNO
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Several companies and agencies had embarked on similar projects in the past but the street lights are now in bad state due to poor maintenance. How do you intend to sustain the project?
If you look at our history as TECNO mobile, you’ll be rest assured we can sustain the project. We have a lot of phones similar or different from what TECNO had manufactured in Nigeria but they don’t have after sales service and we know that.
The ‘light up Ikeja’ project is actually done by a subsidiary of the TECNO group that is into LED light. This is one of the best LED and it has warranty of 24 months and back up batteries.
chidi Okomkwo giving his speech
Do you plan to extend the project to other communities, states or the project is limited to Ikeja?
A journey of thousand miles starts with a step. This is just the beginning. We’ve taken a bold step and we will extend same gesture to all other communities. We can’t be every where but any where we are, we ensure any project started is done brilliantly before we proceed. Five years ago, what you knew or the impression you had about TECNO is different today.
The project has covered three communities; Ogunbiyi,Anifowose and Anibiyi and we have installed a total of 88 units of solar-powered street lights in these communities.
There are impressions that the project has sales under tone. Your reaction?
We are not interested in sales as far as the project is concerned. An obvious question have been asked as regards this which is the market share. We are not interested in market share but to provide products and services that will appeal to Nigerian consumers. They will be persuaded and encouraged to buy our products. The project is not another marketing strategy or for sales figure . The focus is on activities that impact lives in our immediate community. We want do a project that will useful for the communities and at the same time provide product that will be helpful to Nigerian consumers.
Can you talk about the cost of the project?
We don’t care about the cost of the project but majorly the impact it will make on the selected communities. I did not control funding of the project so i might not be able to give you the figure now.
What were the challenges encountered in the course of implementing the project?
In the project proper, We actually got a lot of support form the Lagos state government. We were supported by the Lagos state commissioner for science and technology who introduced us to the Lagos State Electricity Board. I met with both the present and the past general manager of the electricity board and presented our project proposals for approval. They supported us all the way. We approached the communities when we wanted to start and they gave their consent. We also got the consent of the local government authority. So we didn’t encounter much problems in terms of approval. Other problem came at the approval time due to the fact that the former managing director of the Lagos state electricity board was replaced and the new man needed time to start work and when he did, i went with the communities to review the proposal earlier sent and he approved ti. Other challenges are in the aspects of logistics.
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At what time do you expect the communities to take over ownership of the project?
We are prepared to support this project. We don’t want it to fail. The LED has life span of 10 years and the batteries have life span of five years. They have warranty of three years however, we would continue to support in terms of maintenance of the solar street light for as long a possible because we have provided highly technical solar system here. The panels and the batteries are of high qualities. The specification for each solar system is enormous. It has over 400 watts for 2 panels per pole and each of the panel is 200 watts so it has a total of 4oo watts and each pole has two batteries. Each battery is about 200 amps. The pole is 8 meters high. We have one of the best quality of solar system anywhere and can be compared to any project of this anywhere in the world.
The project belong to the community. We have handed it over to the whole community. When the materials and the panels arrived the country, the communities provided the warehouse for them and got them secured. The installations company was going to these warehouses to . So we will continue to support them because we don’t want a failed project.
What would Nigerian mobile market look like in years to come?
Mobile phones market in Nigeria is dynamic and evolving. Nigeria with over 160 million populations; a larger percentage of the population often use two phones at a time. So we believe that the market is still evolving not saturated yet.
In previous years, we had feature phones. Not quite long, we had data from the various network providers and now people can use smart phones for different purposes: health and various payments platforms which can be facilitated by the smart phones. So we believe we can still do a lot in the Nigerian mobile market. The demand for mobile phones in Nigeria will still be very strong and will go stronger in the years to come.
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