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STAR
Interview |
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Poor
Power Supply Is
Not Peculiar To Nigeria |
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-Dable,
APC-MGE Manager
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APC-MGE
is a global name in critical power and cooling services and
has shown strong presence in West Africa. APC-MGE UPS is a globally
trusted backup to safeguard electrical appliances when exposed
to power surge and poor power quality.
Recently, Paul-Marie Dable, the company's English Speaking Area
& Service Centre Manager for West Africa was in Lagos where
he was cornered by ROMMY IMAH for a chat.
Dable spoke on a wide range of issues including the company's
plans for Nigeria and West Africa as well as the endemic issue
of poor power supply in this region…. |
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| What's
your impression of the Nigerian vis-a-vis the West African
market?
Has it met with your company's expectation before venturing
into it?
Yes of course. In West and Central Africa, there are six countries
that are our major operational base; and they are Cote d`ivoire,
Burkina Faso, Senegal, Congo, Ghana and Nigeria. But today
the Nigerian market alone accounts for about 60% of our turnover
in the West and Central as well as the international market.
It means that of 25 countries only Nigeria and part of Ghana
contribute the 60% of our turnover.
For us, Nigeria is a bigger market and we have been in the
market for a long time that is why we are working very hard
to maintain our standard and image. To sustain this image,
we have always embarked on advertisement and promotional activities
which have always yielded |
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positive
results. Competition abound in the market and for that reason we assure
our customers that our brand and services are the best in the market.
Why is it that with all the glowing attributes about the Nigerian
market, APC-MGE is yet to have an operational office in Nigeria? |
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What
you have to know is that Schneider Electric, which is a big
company and basically in power projection has an office and
have been operating in Nigeria for a long time.
Schneider is now the owner of APC, it was bought two years
ago. You know that MGE is a very strong brand in the three
phase UPS business and have a lot of experience in it. And
there is a possibility of MGE doing the same for APC.
APC was very good with single phase in Nigeria and we want
MGE expertise to bear on APC three phase also.
We have already started training for our partners and they
would be able to explain to our clients that APC and MGE merged,
and
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the experience
of both brands would be of great benefit to them. Schneider Electric,
the owner of both brands is a big company and has an office in Nigeria
with almost a hundred staff.
As a result of that, we have an office in Schneider Electric with
commercial officers to manage the market. And soon, we would get
a technical officer to help with technical issues.
Though we know that most of our partners are technically experienced
in the repairs of UPS but APC-MGE engineers would be on ground to
put their expertise to any technical problem to the satisfaction
of Nigerians. We feel that in the next two years APC-MGE would have
an office in Nigeria and that would help our local partners to develop
more in the business. And this would lead us to do same in Ghana.
So you are now leveraging on Schneider
Electric's office to do your business here in Nigeria?
Yes, Schneider Electric is the group and APC-MGE is the subsidiary
just like it has some other brands under its umbrella.
I know you have an office in Cotonou?
It is a service centre. So that office co-ordinates the whole of
West Africa?
Yes, in each West African country we have partners that we send
for training; in return they train technicians under control of
the Cotonou office where we have APC-MGE certified technicians.
In future, we would appoint two APC-MGE certified technicians in
Nigeria that would leverage on their expertise and work with our
local partners to make sure that the UPS get repaired on time and
quickly.
What kind of partnership do you have
here in Nigeria?
Today, we have two kinds of partnerships: one is called the IT partners,
that is, we formalize the deal with our partners on small UPS. And
we have the other partners called the Enterprise partners that develop
the three phase directly and work on projects together. And with
each partnership, we have four other different partners.
Looking at your organization's presence
in Nigeria, apart from the IT and Telecom industry, which other
company or companies do you partner with?
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Most major
companies operating in Nigeria are our partners and they use
the APC-MGE UPS; Oil companies like Total, Chevron and Shell,
use the big MGE UPS as well as the small APC UPS.
Do
you deal with government establishments?
No, we don't deal directly with the government. It's our distributors
that have direct contact with government establishments, what
we do is invite government officials any time there is a launch
or enlightenment programme on the use of the APC-MGE UPS products.
And if they want any of our products, we direct them to any
of our distributors. |
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Do
you take into consideration the peculiar nature of Nigeria just like
any other third world country, on the culiar to Nigeria only. issue
of power while introducing your products into the market?
It is an important point to note that it is not because of the power
problem in Africa that most of the UPS would be sold in Africa. You
have to know that in power protection all Africa represent less than
5% total turnover. It means that in Asia, Europe and the Americas,
UPS are also used.
We are talking of power protection, and people and organisations use
the UPS as a backup to safeguard electrical appliances not because
of power outage but due to the quality of power supply. The issue
of poor quality of power supply is not pepeculiar to Nigeria only. |
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Yes of course, we make
sure that the types brought into the Nigerian market are up
to standard and of high quality. We don't just bring in UPS
but high quality ones that can withstand any situation.
Are you mindful of your competitors?
It's true that we have competitors, everything you do there
are competitors. We at APC-MGE work hard to keep our position.
That's why we keep it as priority, the quality of our products,
regular training of our partners and commercial officers. We
are not afraid of competitors but proud of the quality of our
products.
I asked that question because of the way Nigerians are embracing
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the inverter
battery; it is becoming a household thing. Are you aware of that?
We are aware of it. The issue is the type of configuration and it
costs a lot of money because if you put inverter that means you want
a lot of backup time and it means investing more money in the battery.
And whenever the battery is bad you buy another one. It's better according
to the Nigerian market to invest in the UPS than the inverter battery
because the UPS is more cost effective.
What are APC-MGE's plans to respond to the global economic meltdown?
Yes, the last decision we took and worked on was the type of UPS that
sold much in Nigeria. We redesigned a new look UPS not only for the
Nigerian market but also for the other third world countries and it
is really working fine without complaints |
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Companies
are laying off their staff in response to the global economic
meltdown.
As head of operations in West Africa, what's your take on this?
I don't think anything would happen to our staff. Rather, in
line with our expansion plans, we would employ one commercial
officer and two technicians and even open a website where people
can view our products. These are all towards employing more
hands in Nigeria and after here, we replicate same in Ghana.
What are your plans for the end users of your products |
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in terms
of after service, do they go to Cotonou whenever there is an issue
to resolve?
No, the Cotonou office is just to train our local technicians in repairs
of the UPS. Our local partners repair damaged UPS or change it, later
APC and the partner would now manage the changed UPS. What we are
working at in the next three months is to have a sub-centre and that
would be in Nigeria; it would cater for the replacement of UPS, and
from here we move to other parts of Africa.
What's your market share in West Africa? |
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Today, APC is
a well known brand and strong; even MGE is doing well. If you
put the two brands together you can see that they are leaders
in both West and Central African markets.
That's the reason we want to fight to keep this position. Even
other competitors know that APC-MGE is the leader in the UPS
business.
As an expert in power cooling systems, what do you think can
be done to curb the issue of power surge in West Africa?
What is important to know is that most power surge is from the
electrical design. If you are building either an office or residentia |
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apartment,
there is the need for a qualified electrician because everything starts
from the work that would be done by the electrician. And secondly,
you have to buy quality products even in the event of power outages;
by then, you would have solved 80% of the problems of power surge.
What's APC-MGE corporate social responsibility
to Nigeria as its biggest market?
What you have to know is that we are under the control of Schneider
Electric. Schneider Electric manages a project in the name of its
entire brand called U2; it's a project that helps the schools. And
Schneider is presently managing the School of the Blind at Ikorodu;
the students are sponsored up to the university level.
In addition, even research projects of students and professors are
sponsored by Schneider. All these are under the control of Schneider
Electric which is the main company. And the policy of Schneider Electric
affects its entire brand. |
