With the liberalisation of the telecoms sector over a decade ago came the influx of fake/substandard phones into the market. When mention is made about these phones and other products, what comes into mind is China. In this interview with LUCAS AJANAKU, the Senior Marketing Manager, Consumer Business Group, Huawei Technologies Nig. Ltd, Olaonipekun Okunowo, says it is a wrong perception. He says Huawei is a global company with footprints across all the continents. The firm, he adds, believes strongly in indigenous manpower development and has been doing just that in Nigeria. He expresses concern over improper management of e-wastes, saying Huawei will deploy its technology and finances in tackling the menace in partnership with the relevant agencies of government.
Huawei is a Chinese firm and there is a perception that Chinese firms are associated with the manufacturing of substandard products, especially mobile devices. What is your reaction to this?
I would have been surprised if you did not ask this question. My answer to this is that it is completely a wrong perception. Over the years, globally, Huawei has evolved from just being that Chinese company to a global brand with lots of innovative products. Today, Huawei is among top 100 brands in the world and the first Chinese company to be in that cadre. It is number 225 on top global Fortune 500 brands rating. Today, Huawei is also the number one brand when it comes to ICT in the world. In terms of global smartphone sales, Huawei is number three in the world.
Huawei moved to Nigeria in 2000. That itself showed that it is committed to being Nigerian brand. The company came to Nigeria at the inception of the technology evolution after the likes of Nokia and Siemens and when it came, it had the opportunity to work with former state-run telco, Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL). Today, Huawei is the market leader and it has its footprints in everything technology in Nigeria from banking, defence, aviation, telecommunication and even education.
Most OEMs have shown interest only in rolling out products without putting in place a scheme that will help take care of managing e-wastes in a sustainable manner. What plans do you have in this direction?
Huawei as a responsible corporate citizen is not unaware of the hazards improperly handled e-wastes pose to human health, safety and environment. Be that as it may, we are relatively new in Nigeria and the volume of our smartphones in the market can certainly not be compared with the likes of the known market leaders in smartphones in the country. That notwitstandaing, as a Nigerian company that has come to this market, not to make money and go away, we are committed to partnering with the relevant agencies of government, both at the federal, states and local government levels to evolve a sustainable way of managing e-waste. We are particularly aware of the frontline role being played by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in this respect and we are prepared to key into its policy directions.
Huawei is associated with telecoms equipment vending. Can you speak more about your foray into mobile phones?
Yes, you are correct. That makes us even masters of the technology. Our innovative equipment conforms with that of the all the operators globally. In 2014, Huawei led the platform of patent technologies filing globally. It is number one patent; you know, you develop software yourself and you file it. It is recognised globally and we have been doing it for years. I will say for every Huawei phone, over 90 per cent software on the phone is manufactured by Huawei itself, which is also used by other phones. We are in a business of innovation; we are masters of the craft. We are ICT platform provider. All over the world, 45 of top global Telco companies are on Huawei platform and equipment. So it is quite easy for us to first address the issue of connectivity with our phone because for every setting, we must conform to this number one.
When your phone can easily identify a network, it saves your battery, so it doesn’t have to work extra just to get the network. Again, what makes a Huawei phone the best is that it is made with best materials. For example, the Mate 7 phone is steel, metal body, which stands in the class of the top brand phones in the world. Put them side by side in class with Phone 6, Samsung S5, S6, and what makes it different is the Emotion interface (EMUI). The interface is made that if you are the type that has never used a smartphone before, you can simply put it to standard and you will navigate yourself. You can’t have a Huawei phone and be calling someone to do it for you all you need do is set it to standard.
Moreover, because of our strength in the ICT world, we are able to bring the best phone as a premium phone at affordable prices because when compared with other high-end smartphones in the market. The value of phone we sold for N102,000, when you check the same phone in the same class in another brand, you see that they are 45 per cent more in price and you ask yourself, if your phone has so much quality, why is it more affordable. It’s not that it is cheap but what we do is to give the consumer the best at the most affordable price. Because we own the technology, so we can offer much more value to consumers in terms of pricing.
Globally, we have 16 R&D centres situated in the United States, Japan, China, India and Europe, if you want to talk about technology; it’s not a case of it being made in China. Globally, we have Huawei Design centres in America, Japan, Europe, United Kingdom and China, so it’s not like everything that comes from Huawei is from China. No. China is just one of the places; it is providing the equipment for the platform. When it comes to designs, software basically go to Europe, America, Japan and Russia. This is where you get them and we are well established there. So for the phones, you have something global that comes into the phone so it makes it more competitive in many ways. As a matter of fact, if you go online and search for Huawei mobile phones,. You will see all the accolades the phone has received. It’s even the smartphone that so far helped Huawei to be one of the top 100 in the world last year. It is the same smartphone that helped to push Huawei to become one of the top global Fortune 500 brands in the world. And for me, the accolades are unlimited, and that is what has made the phone. And specifically, for the Mate 7, four key factors that made it the best include its high definition screen (six-inch); its battery is 4100 MA, which means for a smart phone it lasts for 48 hours. If you use a smartphone, you need to charge it probably for every five minutes or hours but for this smartphone, it has a large battery of 4100MA and you can actually use this phone to charge another phone because the battery space once you charge it you can use it to charge another phone.
Now, the interesting part of it is that this phone has a finger print security; so when you install your fingerprints, you don’t have to go through a pattern. To unlock your device, all you got to do is touch it the fingerprint sensor and it unlocks within a space of seconds and it can allow five fingerprints for different functions on the device. You can use it to launch software, probably you want to check your internet, you stored one of your fingerprints, so once you touch it, it launches that directly. You can pay your bank, instead of using password just use fingerprint as a password for it. It is highly secured because it is biometric, so if someone is not you, it cannot open. So once I put my fingerprint, I don’t need another password. One of the reasons is that if you can use it for payment online, it has to be secured. When it was launched last year, it was recognised as the number one secured smartphone for that fingerprint because everything it does is just to make things easy. Most importantly, the speed of connectivity is marvelous. It’s a CAT6 and 4G LTE enabled smartphone and CAT6 actually in terms of downloading is 300MB per seconds. So if you are on 4G LTE platform and you want to download a film of 1G, you download in less than 4 seconds. Once you are on 4G LTE its quite fast and that is what has made the phone the fastest.
What are Huawei’s long term plans for the Nigerian market?
Huawei is not in Nigeria just to do business, but to transfer its global strength, enterprise and expertise to Nigeria as a country as one of the most important countries in Africa because we believe that if you are a Nigerian, you have a say in Africa.
Huawei has been in Nigeria for this period of time and has invested so much because many ICT companies will take their workers to be trained in Dubai, France and other parts of the world. At Huawei, we really don’t do that. We believe in Nigeria and the dream of her founding fathers The first training we did was in 2004. What Huawei did was to build a training centre in Abuja and equip the place and brought in experts from wherever they are to train Nigerians to be the best in the ICT industry and as a matter of fact this training centre accommodates 2,000 plus trainees yearly.
So you discovered that in Huawei, it’s not about bringing expatriates from outside; it is about training Nigerian engineers to be the best, and over the years, the company has invested so much. In 2004, we launched the courses for global system for mobile communication (GSM) in Nigeria at our training school. In 2005, we added courses for the code division multiple access (CDMA) segment of the industry and courses in transmission switch and fixing of phone. We train people in Nigeria rather than training them abroad. In 2009, we launched courses for the WEMAX, and in January 2013, over 6,000 graduate engineers were trained in our school in Abuja. That is to say that since 2000, we have seen Nigeria as a place we need to be part of, not a place to come and reap and go. It is a place you need to invest in and if you want to invest in an economy, you need to invest in its manpower development. Aside bringing equipment, you need to invest in the resources that are available; that is what Huawei has done.
Huawei is doing so much even with private companies, government. We are also doing a lot in the area of sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We have a lot of programmes for young students in the universities on ICT who are on scholarship. We have youths from Niger Delta going to Malaysia, many big countries that are experts in ICT, taking them, in partnership with government to train them on a yearly basis. We have a lot of people that have been sponsored by Huawei to companies in relation to ICT because we believe this is our area of core competence and that is what the world is talking about today. Today you talk about the global village. It comes about with the help of ICT so when you empower the people and you let them know you don’t have to get someone abroad to do it, you have people even coming with genuine innovation as to what will address their own environmental issue and we are investing more.
Globally for us as a company we invest so much in research and development (R&D). We are a company that is not so much particular about profit making. We do re-invest 10 per cent of our yearly income into R&D so that we can invest for the future and this is what has been keeping us and that is what has made us stay in Nigeria.
You have just launched the P8 into the Nigerian market. What is it about this device that makes it unique?
The Huawei P8 takes beauty to the next level, striking a flawless balance of advance technology, artistry and creativity. Based on a deep understanding of human-machine design, the Huawei P8 delivers a new level of usability for applications impacting everyday life – at work and at play. With craftsmanship that pushes the bounds of possibility and new revolutionary light painting modes, the Huawei P8 provides consumers with an inspiration for creativity.
The Huawei P series introduced in 2012 has redefined style. The P1 marked the debut of Huawei’s journey, taking the stage with a new ethos based on beauty. The P2 built on the momentum of the P1, breaking new boundaries of processing speed; the P6 brought out a new and elegant sleekness; and the ultimate craftsmanship of the P7 stunned the market.
The Huawei P8 design is deeply rooted in literary tradition, combining elements of ancient manuscripts, illuminated books and the essence of sunlight in stained glass library windows. It is inspired by the best of human design from different cultures across the centuries and embodies the human spirit of exploration and beauty.
The design details of the Huawei P8 evoke the pages, bindings and hard covers of traditional books. The one-piece aluminium body with the diamond shape blasting craftsmanship highlights the texture of the metal. The phone comes with four elegant colour options: silver, gold, black and grey. The devices come in a translucent package and the unboxing experience is like taking a book from the shelf.
The Huawei P8 embodies the ultimate in elegance, craftsmanship and durability, the phone is 6.4mm thin, with dual SIM cards, and works seamlessly with a 4G network (where the service is available), the body’s sleek back cover is constructed of steel, for reinforced structural rigidity.
As a Nigerian company that has come to this market, not to make money and go away, we are committed to partnering with the relevant agencies of government, both at the federal, states and local government levels to evolve a sustainable way of managing e-waste. We are particularly aware of the frontline role being played by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in this respect and we are prepared to key into its policy directions.
