Michael Dell in Nigeria, reiterates commitment

Michael Dell with Austin Okere during his visit to Nigeria

THE founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Incorporate, Mr. Michael Dell reiterated the commitment of his firm to the Nigerian market.

Mr. Dell who was in Nigeria last month aside impressing the recent visit was in fulfillment of a promise made to the chief executive officer of the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), Mr. Austin Okere, to visit Nigeria, two years after, also used the opportunity to meet with local business partners.

DigitalSENSE News gathered that the visit which took place on Friday, June 15, 2012, may not be unconnected with Mr. Dell’s promise made in September 2010 when Computer Warehouse Group visited the Dell Executive Briefing Center (EBC) in Texas with some customers from Nigeria, including Ecobank International.

He also noted that the appointment of a Nigerian, Mr. Nnamdi Orakwue as the Executive Director, Strategy and Operations by Dell was a good boost in actualizing the trip to the most populous nation on the continent of Africa.

To the Dell community in Nigeria, he pointed out that the visit was to demonstrate the commitment of his company to the market than the fulfillment of his promise.

He equally gave an insightful presentation about the current strategic focus of Dell, and the acquisitions that have been made to support the strategy, including acquiring Equalogic, Compellent, Wyse and Perot Systems.

The aforementioned companies are the technology platforms upon which Dell intends to launch into the Enterprise and Cloud spaces.

Mr. Dell later had a closed-door session with selected partners at local Dell office at Mulliner Towers, Ikoyi-Lagos, including Austin Okere, Founder and CEO of the Computer Warehouse Group, the acclaimed largest Systems Integration company in West Africa; his counterpart at Dataflex, Mr. Andy Nwani; the chief executive officer, Equipment Hall, Mr. Gbolahan Olayomi, and Mr. Emeka Maduibuike, Managing Director of Systemtech Group.

Mr. Dell was quoted  as saying that a major plank of the Dell Partners’ strategy has been the ‘Try & Buy’ concept which has worked very well.

This was preceded by a welcome address by the Country Manager, West Africa, Dell, Mr. Chuks Ulu-Udensi.

Speaking, Mr. Okere of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) explained his company has taken advantage of the opportunities of these platforms to provide virtualization solutions to major customers in Finance and Oil & Gas sectors such as First Bank of Nigeria, UBA, TotalElf, and Ecobank International for their global operations coving Accra, Lagos London, Paris, Lome and over 30 other countries.

As a result, he emphasised CWG is now considered one of the most dominant players in the space.

Remmy Nweke

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