The shrinking market for local PC makers

Nigeria turns 50 this October. For the locally made computer companies , it is a mixed grill: A mix of blessing s and woes depicting the state of affairs in Africa's most populous country of 150 million people. There were no computer companies 50 years ago neither was the computer a common sight. It was not even a common sight a little less than five years ago though local PC makers were already a part of the technology space that has evolved in the IT revolution that came to Nigeria about a decade ago.

If having PC assembly companies was all that was necessary to define all the success story Africa's most populous country needs to define its success in the last 50 years, Nigeria would be rated on the A+ list. In the last decade, more than seven PC makers, UNITEC, Pragmatic, Balogtek, Brian Systems, Zinox and Omatek and the more recent Geniac and Veda have arrived on the scene. About three have completely disappeared from the landscape. The surviving players are only managing to keep afloat for a mix of factors.

Two players, Zinox and Omatek lead the league. Between them, they dominate the share of the PC market controlled by the local PC assembly companies. The two combined has less than 35% of the entire sales in 2009. The market has expanded in terms of patronage and reach that transcends private and public sectors. But it has remained largely a domain of foreign players leaving a fraction of the margin for the local PC makers to contend with. For every one PC that Omatek or Zinox sells HP and Acer sells between 7 and three. The remaining margins go to Dell, Mercury, Toshiba, Sony and other foreign brands. All combined, they controlled about 65% of the market giving them a strong edge over the local players, particularly Zinox and Omatek.

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