Ben Gossage, Sales & Marketing Director, Canon Central and North Africa revealed in this exclusive virtual brief chat with ITPulse’s Martin Ekpeke, how the company, which specializes in lenses and camera, has been able to capture the Nigerian imaging market.
How do you rate the acceptance of Canon’s products in Nigeria?
Within the Imaging Sector, we have an industry-leading portfolio of products and solutions which are extensive in size. Many products have been embraced by Nigeria, such as our market-leading Large Format Printer range, whereas others still have much room for growth, for example, Managed Print Services which we have invested heavily in and see Nigeria as a potential lead market in Africa.
Many Nigerians see Canon’s products as targeted toward the elites. How do intend to penetrate the middle class?
This is absolutely not our focus, or intention, as our extensive portfolio has offerings for every company/ organizations size and budget. At the upper end of our offering, we can indeed take over and manage a large fleet of cutting-edge multifunction devices to take the burden of managing documents away from an organization, however at the lower end of our portfolio we have numerous desktop printers and copiers designed for lower print volumes at an attractive price – many of Nigerians ‘one man’ shops and design studios have benefited from this.
What is that unique preposition about Canon’s product, where we have Sony, Seiko Epson, Xerox and Nikon?
You list some excellent brands which each compete with us in some way. One crucial benefit we bring to Nigeria is our Canon Office in Ikeja, Lagos. This office contains numerous employees in Management, Sales and Service who each serve our Nigerian Resellers and Customers in their day-to-day businesses.
In what ways are you giving back to Nigeria, considering the fact that Nigeria may just be your biggest market?
With 200m+ people in Nigeria, the country could indeed become our biggest market. One way of giving back to Nigeria is through our Miraisha programme, which promotes job opportunities and future livelihoods in Africa by offering workshops to photographers, videographers, film-makers and print business owners to enhance and support their skill sets. We have already undertaken many projects in Nigeria and will continue to do so.
Is canon considering building a factory in Nigeria, anytime soon?
There are no immediate plans to manufacture within Nigeria, as at the moment we are focused on expanding our Lagos Office and Reseller Network. However, 5 years ago we did not have one single office in Africa, and now we have six, so you never know what the future may bring…