The Nation Newspaper

Tag: CWG

  • CWG extends ICT academy to new frontiers

    The  CWG Academy which started at its Lagos Headquarters four years ago, and has successfully trained and placed over 500 ICT professionals into various fields of industry, has been extended to other operational bases of the pan African company, including Accra, Kampala, Port Harcourt and Abuja, with plans to incorporate Cameroon by the first half of next year.

    In a statement, the goal of the CWG Academy is to bridge the workforce knowledge gap in Africa by equipping fresh graduates with the required skills that will make them employable or become successful entrepreneurs.

    Of the over 500 graduates from the Academy, about 85 per cent have been employed in leading companies such as IBM, CWG, MTN, Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic-IBTC, Chevron, Cadbury, Etisalat, Ericsson and Unilever among others, while about 10 per cent have opted to become technology entrepreneurs.

    Some of the beneficiaries said they have benefited immensely from the session. Ezekiel Oyerinde presently working with IBM West Africa as a Storage Systems Specialist says “I am a graduate of Biochemistry but ventured into IT after school. Though, I have gone to a couple of Computer schools, the CWG Academy was the opener for me into the world of endless possibilities in IT”. Continuing, Oyerinde said “during the interview stage of my previous employment at MTN, I was pleasantly surprised to see that among those shortlisted, the CWG Academy graduates emerged tops. I consider myself blessed to have had a solid foundation provided through this laudable initiative called CWG Academy. I am grateful to CWG management and the coordinator of the programme”.

    Similarly, Dominic Julian currently working as sales executive in one of the IT companies in Nigeria, attributed his career development to his encounter with the CWG Academy. According to Dominic, he was attracted to the academy because of CWG’s Chief Executive Officer, Austin Okere who is a renowned leader in the industry, and was overwhelmed at the magnitude of the training he received from the faculty.

    “The fluidity exhibited by the technical team as they delivered well-thought-out interactive lectures and instructive practical training could only have come from excellent planning and attention to detail formulated by a seasoned team”Dominic said.

  • CWG urges local content application in ICT

    CWG urges local content application in ICT

    The Group Chief Executive Officer, Computer Warehouse Group, Mr Austin Okere, has urged stakeholders in the information communications technology (ICT) industry to apply the spirit of local content in the industry to achieve sustainable growth.

    Speaking as a panelist on Local Content at the just concluded Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON’s) Telecom Executives and Regulator’s Forum at the Eko Hotels & Suites, he said the right type of local content policy should be developed and applied to the industry.

    According to Mr. Okere, “We should not stampede the NCC into taking actions that will impede the much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector. We should not confuse local content with taking businesses from foreign investors and handing them over to locals without recourse to technical ability and financial capability within the value chain.”

    Austin said while telecoms operation is extremely financially intensive, the rewards are very slow in manifesting. For example Etisalat, with over 15million subscribers, has admitted that it is not making any profit despite huge investments on its network since inception. Also, many of the local code division multiple access (CDMA) operators are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain the heavy investments needed to make their networks viable, and are bleeding subscribers at an alarming rate, threatening their very existence.

    Austin made a distinction between the capital-intensive laying of communication pipes which he referred to as ‘plumbing’, and the utilisation of the pipes to provide value added services such as e-commerce.

    In his view, local entrepreneurs will benefit more in the value chain by taking advantage of the communication infrastructure to launch hitherto unrealisable business models as has been demonstrated by Jumia, Konga, and the CWG Group which has taken advantage of the pervasive broadband infrastructure in the country to launch a cloud-based subscription business providing technology to SMEs tagged CWG2.0.

    Okere gave examples of how local companies such as Alibaba in China have taken this initiative to create businesses much bigger than the telecoms ‘plumbing providers’. Other examples are Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in the United States (U.S.) and MPESA in Kenya.

    He warned: “Local content should not be about targeting a bigger share of the small cake, but rather baking a much bigger cake that can go round everybody, with people paying in the areas of their greatest strengths.”

    The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, challenged local operators to ensure that they imbibe adequate skills, access to finance and also display the requisite commitment so that they could be taken seriously.

     

  • CWG’s revenue slumps on competition, others

    CWG’s revenue slumps on competition, others

    • Refocuses business

    Indigenous tech firm, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG Plc), has blamed the decline in its revenue on continued decline in margins on traditional information technology (IT) infrastructure business due to commoditisation, competitive pressures, as well as viable alternatives in the cloud computing frontier.

    The firm has, therefore, mapped out strategies to change the focus of the business to return it to profitability for the benefit of its shareholders.

    Its Financial Controller, Remi Adeloye, lamented that the firm’s half year revenue of N3.3billion is 16 per cent below N9.9billion of its corresponding previous year while its gross profit of N1.6billion is 23 per cent below the N2.1billion achieved within the corresponding year under review.

    He said:  “CWG’s 2014 first half of the year revenue of N8.3billion is 16 per cent below 2013 N9.9billion, while gross profit N1.6billion is 23 per cent below 2013 N2.1billion. The lower (first half) H1 revenue is a reflection of the continued decline in margins on traditional IT infrastructure business due to commoditisation and competitive pressures, as well as viable alternatives in the cloud computing frontier.

    He, however, said in spite of these challenges, the Group’s financial position remained firm buoyed by adequate liquidity as its leverage and efficiency ratio improved to 1.5 as against 1.4 of the corresponding period under review last year.

    “The financial position of the Group remains strong with adequate liquidity, leverage and efficiency ratios. H1 2014 current ratio improved to 1.5 as against H1 2013 which was 1.4 signifying strong liquidity and adequacy of working capital to meet transactional needs. Also, CWG’s leverage debt to equity ratio remains low at nine per cent as against 10 per cent in 2013,” Adeloye said.

    Its Group Chief Executive Officer, Austin Okere, said a shift in strategy has become imperative in view of the development.

    He said:  “We crafted the plan code named CWG2.0 in 2010, realising back then the pervasiveness of cloud computing, and the major enablement for this in our region following the increase in broadband access from 0.65terabytes (Tb) to a combined capacity of 9Tbits per second. We were very clear that while our tremendous growth over the years had been propelled by our traditional businesses in hardware and software sales and support, and VSAT bandwidth vending, these represented mature and declining margin businesses, the import of which have been evident in our recent financial statements.”

    He said the uptake of firm’s new cloud products not only in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda proved that its emerging business model of providing cloud services on a subscription basis is scalable, repeatable, transferable, relatively more sustainable and profitable.

    Okere added: “We consider the refocusing of our business into a subscription based model as a dual advantage play. In addition to being a more sustaining strategy, it maximises our social impact investing on the economy of Africa and helps to create jobs by empowering entrepreneurs in the countries of our operation.”

  • Local capacity can drive ICT, says CWG chief

    Local capacity can drive ICT, says CWG chief

    The Chief Executive Officer, Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Mr. Austin Okere, has said indigenous information technology (IT) professionals have the capacity and competence to deliver high profile IT projects.

    He said gone are the days when important IT projects are contracted to expatriate firms, adding that the situation will keep getting better.

    Speaking during the commissioning of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN), the first of its kind in West and Central Africa, built by a consortium of technology companies led by his firm, in Abuja, he said: “We have never been in doubt of local capacity to deliver major technology projects for government. We have matured in delivering projects of this scale, and are grateful to the NUC and World Bank for the opportunity to prove this with the timely delivery of the NgREN. We do look forward to the opportunity of extending this success in the next phases of the project.

    “CWG Plc was named a World Economic Forum Global Growth Company at the 2014 WEF Africa. CWG was selected for this recognition based on our phenomenal growth, global corporate citizenship, executive leadership and impact on the competitive landscape of the ICT industry in Africa.”

    The project was commissioned by President Jonathan Ebele Goodluck who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike.

    The president said: “As I join the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) in the celebration of this achievement in the establishment of NgREN, I commend the individuals and groups that dedicated time and energy to make it a reality. Let me particularly appreciate the World Bank for its support to the NgREN project, the Executive Secretary of the NUC for championing its cause and the hardworking team of dedicated individuals from within the university system he put together to realise this dream.

    “Government expects all education and research institutions to enlist as members of the NgREN and that the current low ranking of Nigerian universities in quality of teaching and research output will improve significantly within a short time as a result.

    “To ensure the broadband infrastructure and services already provided are maintained and improved upon for the use of all education and research institutions in Nigeria, I hereby approve and therefore direct the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to provide the necessary funds for this purpose.”

     

     

  • CWG plans fundraiser

    Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG), a Nigerian technology company, will seek to raise capital on the country’s stock exchange within 18 months after listing existing stock last week.

    The body needs extra cash to refocus the business toward cloud computing from hardware and software, Chief Executive Officer Austin Okere said in an interview at the weekend in Lagos.

    CWG’s goal is to become the biggest cloud-computing provider in Africa by 2015, he said.

    “In 12 to 18 months time, we will approach the market again,” said Okere. “By that time, we would have crystallised our transformation process.”

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Africa’s second-largest bourse, is seeking a $1 trillion market capitalisation by 2016 by encouraging more technology and telecoms companies to go public. The exchange is working to make it easier for companies from those industries to list, according to Nigeria’s Information and Communication Technology Minister Omobola Johnson.

    “Our role is to be a trailblazer; to go to the exchange and show to people the value of going to the exchange,” Okere said. “I won’t be surprised if this now opens the path for many more IT companies to come and list.” CWG plans to sell shares on the US technology-dominated exchange Nasdaq in the longer term, he said.

    CWG’s shares have gained 4.5 per cent since they were listed on the NSE on November 15, compared with a 3.2 per cent gain on the all-share index over the same period.

    It has a target to double profit in the year on sales of $132.2 million, according to Okere. The company is considering at least one acquisition, he said.