Africa’s tech maverick talks power of 4G, digital learning

Samsung East Africa Vice President Robert Ngeru    [PHOTO BY STANDARD]

Kenya: We spent the first few minutes of our interview with Mr Robert Ngeru talking about healthy living. He is trying out a new diet that has already had impressive effects.

“It can be challenging at first, but if you just discipline your body, your system gets used to the reduced proteins and sugars, and if you stick to it, you start to see results,” Mr Ngeru said when asked if he gets tempted to cheat.

But asking the vice president and chief operating officer at Samsung East Africa to choose his favourite Samsung device, leads to a less direct response. It is like he has been asked to declare which of his five children he loves most.

At first, he absolutely declines to name a favourite and it takes several minutes of prodding before he admits to a preference.

Real workhorse

Ngeru is currently using the Galaxy S6 and Note 4, two of the latest editions in Samsung’s line of high-end and powerful mobile devices.

“I love the Note 4. It is a real workhorse and you can do everything on it, from receiving, signing and sending documents to playing PowerPoint presentations,” he said.

We are in Samsung’s regional offices at Nairobi’s West End, and listening to Ngeru talk about technology leaves you in no doubt that he is having fun — the kind of fun you have when your passion happens to be your day job.

Last month, he celebrated his fifth year at Samsung, the latest feather in the cap of a man who has been at the forefront of Africa’s tech awakening the last two decades.

Before joining Samsung, Ngeru was a business manager at Microsoft’s mobiles division, and before that, area manager for Motorola’s mobile devices.

This was almost a decade before the first fibre optic cable was to land on the Kenyan coast. At the time, the country’s mobile phone users were a fraction of the current 28 million subscribers.

“I remember when we were bringing in the Motorola Razr line. It was a really exciting time because consumers were used to 2G bar phones and we came in with this slim, stylish flip phone and created a marketing buzz and it was really an interesting assignment,” he recalls.

“Now we are looking at 4G and I can tell you that this is going to be a game changer in terms of data in this country, and we are lining up to ensure our users have options for 4G-enabled devices across the various price points.”

 

Samsung is set to unveil nine devices this week that are 4G-enabled, with prices starting from Sh14,000 to the high-end Samsung Galaxy S6, which is set to retail at Sh79,000.

He gives me a demonstration of 4G speeds using a YouTube trailer of the movie The Avengers on his S6, and the download speeds are incredible.

Ngeru considers delivering technology solutions to developing markets his mission. And after living and working in several countries in the West and in Africa, he has decided to use his home country as a base for executing this mission.

Unlike in the developed world, the uptake of technology in Kenya, like in many other developing economies, is still hindered by cost, a barrier many vendors and service providers are working to lower.

THE CHALLENGES

However, the challenges of maintaining good margins and expanding one’s market share in a growing market that witnesses new entrants almost every quarter is often a tricky balancing act for technology leaders.

Add to this the challenges of bureaucratic systems and moribund legislation that make it costly to do business and you have a business environment where corporations need more than run-of-the-mill operation strategies to remain relevant.

“When we zero-rated VAT on mobile phones, we saw a great improvement in uptake and more subscribers were registered. It is during this period that we had one of the largest jump in the number of mobile phone subscribers in the country,” Ngeru says.

“However, when we re-introduced it in 2013 and then introduced new taxes on airtime and then money transfer, we negated these gains. We understand that the Government needs to raise money, which funds development, but it is important we do not hurt other sectors in the process.”

Ngeru adds that other challenges of the re-introduced tax is that enforcement is not very strict and this creates a loophole unscrupulous traders are exploiting to make a killing at the expense of legitimate vendors.

“We need to have a better collection system of VAT because there are some traders who do not pay VAT,” he explains.

“This person is able to sell a phone 16 per cent cheaper and still make the same margins as someone who is paying VAT.”

Positive strides

However, there are several positive strides the country is making, particularly in the financial sector, which Ngeru says will go a long way towards bringing more users into the technology loop.

“We have an issue with our credit system and we have some catching up to do compared to developed countries. For example, giving out phones on credit as happens in the developed world is a concept that is yet to catch on in our markets.

“However, we are seeing a trend where credit sharing is slowly picking up and telecommunication companies, financial service providers and smartphone vendors are all excited to see this happen.”

Ngeru’s pet project is in digitising education, which he says, if executed right, is the country’s best bet in achieving sustainable development for the masses.

“We need to get the digitisation of education right, and this means getting the right equipment, giving trainers the appropriate education and allowing access to students in a formula that ensures they get the greatest value,” he says.

“For example, we can set up digital labs in all of these institutions and use them to identify the relative strength of these students.”