BlackBerry maker deepens presence in Nigeria

Ben Uzor Jr

Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, is raising its stakes in Nigeria’s mobile broadband device market valued at N245 billion with the establishment of a local office as well as the expansion of its retail and distribution network. The move, according to the phone manufacturer on Tuesday, marks the expansion of RIM’s footprint in Africa from its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, and further underlines the strategic importance of the Nigerian market in RIM’s global business strategy. Robert Bose, managing director for Middle East and Africa, RIM, told journalists at a media briefing in Lagos, that BlackBerry was presently the highest selling smartphone in Nigeria and South Africa, further revealing that BlackBerry devices are currently been sold in about 300 retail stores nationwide.

This robust retail presence, according to Bose, will assist customers get the most out of their BlackBerry smartphones. “We are pleased to cement our physical presence with local staff, establishment of a new legal entity and work with local business partners to expand our retail and customer care across Nigeria.” In addition, RIM said it is providing software upgrade stations in 60 more retail stores nationwide. The smartphone company also disclosed plans to introduce in-warranty repair and after-sales support in retail stores located in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. To further deepen its presence in Nigeria, RIM noted that it had signed up Yaba College of Education into its academic programme which enables colleges and universities globally offer courses in developing solutions for the BlackBerry platform.

“There are several universities that are making use of free tools and content that can be used in terms of BlackBerry app development. We are now looking at how we can roll out the BlackBerry academic programme to as many universities in Nigeria as possible. We want to ensure that we have a consistent stream of young developers coming through that would enable us develop and maintain locally relevant applications and content”, Waldi Wepener, regional director at RIM told Benuzorreports. The Canadian phone maker has continued to record sterling performances in Nigeria, becoming the highest selling smartphone. According to research firm, Informa Telecom & Media, there are 4 million connected smartphones in the country at the moment, two million of them been BlackBerry devices.

However, a new trend is emerging in Nigeria’s highly competitive handset market. Global phone manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the Nigerian market. Only recently, Apple incorporated with reported revenue of $108 billion in 2011 announced its official entry into Nigeria. What is the rationale behind this new focus on Nigeria? Industry analysts say perhaps credit losses, write-down and financial woes which haunt the financial capitals of the world are compelling phone makers to pay more attention to emerging markets such as Nigeria to make up for dwindling fortunes in advanced economies.

In recent times, the BlackBerry maker has continued to lose market share to other players such Samsung. Wepener pointed out that the loss of market share was simply due to the technology shift to full touch interface. “We are currently the number one smartphone in Africa and in Nigeria. We are trying to maximise global market share with in-roads into Nigeria”. According to him, RIM was already putting finishing touches to its BB 10 platform which would put the company in a prime position to re-capture market share. The platform is expected to be launched next year. Wepener noted that RIM is strengthening relationships with telecom operators to enable them deepen their share of revenue from data service provisioning.