Samsung scraps Nigerian manufacturing plant plans.
On Thursday 18 January 2018, Samsung revealed that the company will no longer look to establish a manufacturing plant in Nigeria because its market share in the country is not big enough.
The revelation was made by Sung Yoon, chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics, Africa during an interactive session with reporters in Lagos.
Samsung will also reportedly be reducing their investments in Nigeria by shutting down the Business to Business (B2B) Unit and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Unit.
Yoon, during the interactive session, also claimed that manufacturing a mobile phone requires 400 components and that none are available in Nigeria. He added that although Samsung was the leading consumer electronic company in Nigeria, its share of the Nigerian market is smaller to South Africa’s. In South Africa, the company’s smartphones market size is 80 percent, but is significantly lower in Nigeria, according to Yoon.
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. There are lots of grey products coming into the country and this will affect the return on investment,” he said.
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.
Samsung Africa’s vision was to be the most admired brand, through partnership and profitable growth, concluded Yoon.
Edited by Dean Workman
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