“NIGERIA SHOULD EXPECT MORE FROM US”

– MR. SAMEH EL FARRA, COO – TENAUI AFRICA LTD

In recent years, digital printing has revolutionized the print industry and fostered growth that is driven by innovative solutions. It is predicted that the total digital market will increase substantially within the next 5 to 10 years, with inkjet accounting for more than half of both the value and the volume of digital printing. The question now is: are service providers in this growing digital market in Nigeria ready to meet the needs of operators for both innovative solutions backed by after-sales service? WHERE To Print caught up with one of the nation’s biggest and leading digital print distributor – Mr. Sameh El Farra, Chief Operating Officer of Tenaui Africa Limited in his Ikeja Lagos office where he extensively discussed his company’s plans for the Nigerian market; his partnership with renowned brands like Canon, HP, Mitsubishi, Epson etc.; and the future of Nigeria Digital Market vis a vis meeting extreme demand for quality products with after-sales support scheme offered by Tenaui Africa Limited. He also reveals some of the innovations to be introduced into the Nigerian Digital Market at the upcoming PROPAK West Africa 2017. Enjoy the Exclusive Interview in excerpt below:

SIR, CAN YOU LEAD US TO THE EMERGENCE OF TENAUI AFRICA LIMITED AND WHAT BUSINESS THE COMPANY DOES IN NIGERIA?

Tenaui is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business and industrial digital imaging solutions. Tenaui Africa Limited was established in 2009 in Nigeria but the mother company which originated in Singapore was founded in 1993. We are into digital print and photography in Nigeria where we supply to fill the gap for quality accessories, spare parts, hardware and software. Our business is to majorly provide quality solutions for digital print and photography businesses in Nigeria. We have a sister company called Foto-Art here in Nigeria where we do production and we use it as a Trading and Training Centre for our customers; to educate them on how best to use our machines to get the best quality, definition solutions and high return on their investments. Our aim is to build strong connections and maintain good reputation with our customers.

WHAT BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) PARTNERS DOES TENAUI AFRICA REPRESENT?

We are the official business partner to Canon, a very renowned and leading brand in the digital market. We also partner Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Noritsu, Epson and HP as well as other brands like Innova, Ilux paper supplies and other related products to make these quality brands readily available in the Nigerian market. We also have a wide range of high quality and standard photographic products to meet our customers’ satisfaction from mini labs, lighting systems to photo albums and almost everything related to photography.

SPECIAL FEATURE INTERVIEW – HEIDELBERG NIGERIA LTD “CRITICAL FACTORS FOR SUCCESS WILL BE THE ABILITY TO DEPLOY, IMPLEMENT, AND OPTIMIZE THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY, INTEGRATION, AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF YOUR PRINTING BUSINESS”

SPECIAL FEATURE INTERVIEW – MERCONGRAPHIC NIG. LTD “MANUGRAPH INDIA IS THE LEADING MANUFACTURER OF WORLD-CLASS WEB PRESSES RANGING IN SPEED FROM 25000 TO 70,000 COPIES PER HOUR”

WITH THE DOWN-TURN OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY IN RECENT YEARS WHICH HAS LED TO THE CLOSE DOWN OF SOME FOREIGN COMPANIES IN THE COUNTRY; HOW HAS TENAUI AFRICA BEEN ABLE TO WEATHER THE STORM AND STILL BE IN BUSINESS?

To be honest with you, we face a lot of challenges but we also know that there is a very big and high potential market here in Nigeria. We try as much as possible to avoid the adverse economic situation like unavailability of FOREX for transfers in the country. We also try to be on the safe side by slowing down our operation a little bit to increase it when the boom is up. We also came up with the Canon B2B Partnership in Nigeria and we thank God; so far so good – we don’t have any challenges now and our customers are happy with our services.

AFTER-SALES SUPPORT SERVICE IS A MAJOR CONCERN FOR PRACTITIONERS IN THE COUNTRY; DOES TENAUI AFRICA PARTNERSHIP WITH CANON HAVE ANY PROVISION FOR THIS SERVICE?

This is a very important question. Before we partnered with Canon, their main concern was after-sales support service of their products in Nigeria. Because of the importance we put on after-sales support services – we did several trainings outside the country and we have actually done physical trainings here in Nigeria where expatriates came from Europe to train our Nigerian Engineers. So far, we have 8 Certified Nigerian Engineers attending to our customers’ needs across the country. Some of our engineers major on software solutions while some are on hardware engineering like office solutions and production machines. By God’s Grace next month we are planning to open our Service Centre in Abuja to support our customers in the northern market. Tenaui Africa tries to give training as much as possible to our Nigerian Engineers who in turn train our customers and their operators. We are focusing on this right now to increase man-power in the country.

YOU HAVE BEEN IN NIGERIA FOR 8 YEARS NOW, SO YOU SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH HOW HARD IT IS FOR YOUR CLIENTS TO SOURCE FUNDS TO PROCURE NEW MACHINES; DOES TENAUI AFRICA HAVE AN OPERATIONAL SALES-SUPPORT SCHEME FOR POTENTIAL BUYERS?

Definitely, we have 3 types of sales in operation; we have Credit Facility where we collect 70% cash and 30% credit and the second one is called MPS – Management Print Service whereby we supply the machine and charge the customer per printed copy while the last Sales Scheme is the normal sales – the “cash and carry” (laughs).

TENAUI WILL BE EXHIBITING AT WEST AFRICA’S LARGEST EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE EVENT DEDICATED TO PRINTING, PACKAGING AND PLASTICS – PROPAK WEST AFRICA 2017; WHAT INNOVATION SHOULD VISITORS BE EXPECTING FROM YOU?

We always promise to bring to Nigeria the latest digital products and machines of the highest quality and in view of this; we will be displaying latest models of Digital Large Format Printers at PROPAK West Africa 2017. We will also be introducing the latest Digital Document Scanners in the market. Our front-runner we will be to exhibit the latest Canon Production Machine called C650 – it’s a 2017 technology launched last month at FESPA 2017 in Hamburg Germany.

IN RECENT MONTHS, TENAUI IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CANON OPENED A CANON EXPERIENCE CENTRE IN LAGOS AS WELL AS ORGANIZED A SPORT TOURNAMENT AS PART OF HER CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) STRATEGY, SHOULD THE INDUSTRY BE IN EXPECTATION OF ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT EVENT BY TENAUI?

Definitely, we have an upcoming event to support education, medicals for communities and schools here in Nigeria which is supported by our business partner – Canon. Nigeria should expect more from us.