Omatek gets a place in ITU

Omatek is in Geneva, inside the office of Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).  Omatek was endorsed as an excellent brain machine by the scribe of the ITU at the just ended Telecom Africa 2004 in Cairo, Egypt.  An impressed Utsumi went on to purchase an Omatek PC in a symbolic expression of his faith in IT entrepreneurs springing up on the ‘dark continent’  to salvage its heavily messed up economy.

Africa has remained the most under-developed continent in the world racked by civil wars, poverty, famine and absence of support infrastructures. And naturally, it has the lowest IT diffusion and phone penetration on earth.

But there have been tremendous strides in recent times particularly with mobile telephony. Heavy investment by some GSM players has helped connected more people and taking dial tones to major business centres and remote locations on the continent. With indigenous computer companies like Omatek on the changing economic landscape, Utsumi expressed hope that more Africans would have affordable access to IT resources and more skilled jobs would be created in a continent with a frightening labour queue. The cost of brain boxes has remained high to most people despite the massive importation of used and refurbished systems from Europe and the US in countries like Nigeria.

“I am happy that such high quality product output is in Africa and I want to commend the boldness displayed by Omatek to pioneer such a venture in Africa,” Utsumi said while stressing the need for governments in Africa to support indigenous enterprises that could help to provide the tools with which the continent could cross the digital divide at an affordable cost. 

Omatek pioneered in the African region the local assembly of cases and speakers at its factory in Lagos and has remained a leading player in the hardware sub-sector. It is poised to expand its factory as a computer manufacturer as it prospects for market in other parts of the continent. Its visible presence inside the Geneva headquarters would be a symbolic testimony of its product quality and an inspiration to explore the world, said an elated Florence Seriki, chief executive officer of Omatek adding “The world can see that we are not in any way inferior to other international brands and something good and of first class quality can come out of Nigeria to compete with others.”  

Omatek exhibited at Telecom Africa as part of the official Nigeria delegation. Telecom Africa is a conference and exhibition event organised in every two years by the ITU to highlight the ICT potentials of the continent. The event usually brings together big players as exhibitors, regulators, government officials and telecom experts to explore ways of improving the stakes of the continent in ICT. The Nigerian delegation was led by the Minister of Communications Chief Cornelius Adebayo and the NCC’s Vice Executive Chairman Ernest Ndukwe. Several other Nigerian companies also exhibited to make the Nigerian Pavilion one of the most vibrant exhibition areas at the Cairo event.

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