Samsung: Why we can’t establish a plant in Nigeria

Samsung Electronics says one of the reasons for not establishing a manufacturing plant in Nigeria is because its market share in the country is not big enough.

Sung Yoon, chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics, Africa, made this known during an interactive session with reporters in Lagos on Thursday.

Yoon said though Samsung was the leading consumer electronic company in Nigeria, its share of the Nigerian market is smaller to South Africa’s.

He said the company’s smartphones market size in South Africa is 80 percent, but is lower in Nigeria.

According to him, other issues that affect the building of manufacturing plant in the country are infrastructure, return on investment (ROI) and grey market.

“We are trying to be a local company here. Building factory depends on return on investment and efficiency of the economy,” he said.

“There are lots of grey products coming into the country and this will affect the return on investment,” he said.

The Samsung CEO said manufacturing a mobile phone required about 400 different components, none of which is available in Nigeria.

He said that the company had manufacturing plants in Vietnam, China, South Africa and Korea, hence, having one in Nigeria is a thing of the future.

Yoon said Nigeria’s population of 180 million was a power for the future, a reason why Samsung wanted to be part of the corporate citizenship.

He said annually, the company spent $16 billion globally on research and development (R&D), sells over 700 mobile phones every minute and over 41,000 every hour, globally.

Yoon said the company’s global vision was to inspire the world and create the future, through its innovative technologies, products and designs that enriched people’s lives and contribute to social prosperity.

He said Samsung Africa’s vision was to be the most admired brand, through partnership and profitable growth.

The CEO called on Samsung distributors and dealers to always inform the company’s of their sales drives, as these would enable it fashion its products accordingly and improve service visibility for consumers.