While Samsung is the leading the Nigerian market, it has revealed that its market share in Nigeria is smaller than that of South Africa where the company holds an 80% market share.
This and several other reasons are responsible for the decision of the company to shelf its plans to set up a manufacturing plant in Nigeria.
The company’s CEO for Africa, Sung Yoon, told newsmen that manufacturing a mobile phone requires 400 components and that none is available in Nigeria.
“Other issues that affect the building of a factory in the country are infrastructure, return on investment (ROI) and the grey market. Building a production plant depends on the ROI and efficiency of the economy,” Yoon said.
Presently, Samsung has manufacturing plants in Vietnam, China, South Africa and Korea. Therefore, having one in Nigeria will be in the future.
“Nigeria’s population of 180 million is a power for the future, a reason why Samsung wants to be part of corporate citizenship,” he said.
According to Yoon, every year, Samsung spends about $16 billion globally on research and development (R&D), sells over 700 mobile phones every minute and over 41,000 every hour worldwide.
“Samsung’s African vision was to be the most admired brand, through partnership and profitable growth,” Yoon said.
