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STAR
Interview |
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Aysegul Ildeniz is Intel
Corporation's Regional Director for the
Middle East, Turkey and Africa Region covering
67 countries. Her responsibilities include
managing Intel's business within the region
with a focus on sales channels and marketing.
She is based at Intel's office in Istanbul,
Turkey and serves on the Management Board
of Intel for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
She joined Intel in 1998 and has held a
series of roles including Marketing Programs
Manager and most recently the Intel Turkey
Country Manager. Prior to joining Intel,
she worked in various media and Internet
service companies in San Francisco and in
Istanbul.
Recently, Ildeniz was in Nigeria on official
assignment where she had first hand assessment
of all Intel activities in Nigeria and West
Africa. She equally used the opportunity
to talk to ROMMY IMAH exclusively on the
renowned micro-processor's activities in
Nigeria, the African continent and indeed,
the META region, which she oversees…
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What challenges
have you been facing in marketing the Intel brand
in META region?
Yes, I agree that it is challenging to do business
in this part of the world because of the level of
technology development here. Most of the time, we've
found ourself explaining to people why they need computers.
And I think this is the biggest challenge.
I also see this as the most prominent responsibility
of Intel and indeed any other IT firm for that matter.
This is because in some parts of the world, the use
of technology has really, really transformed people's
lives; the way that they use it in schools, in government
businesses and even in daily businesses. We do observe
that technology has actually made and is still making
great difference.
I think the primary responsibility that we have in
this part of the world, is to explain to the people
that if they deploy computers and they are indeed
able to use them, that there would be much more efficient
way to do the business that they do or the activities
that they have to do. I think that's a challenge because
the use of PCs is so small in this part of the world.
I understand that in Nigeria, it is less than one
per cent of PC use and less than two per cent of Internet
use. It then means that we have a long way to go definitely
to educate people why the PC is very important to
show businesses how they can have efficiencies and
large return on investment. And I think the same goes
for the government that it can be much more citizen-friendly
and efficient if it would undertake the use of PCs.
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For
us in Intel, we do take these challenges very
seriously. Africa as some of my colleagues would
have told you is a very prominent area that we
are taking this year; our focus this year is Africa.
We had a number of executives come over here the
past couple of years. Our chairman as you know
was here lately. And with his effort, we decided
that Africa is the last frontier that he is going
to step up
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in
Information Technology deployment which Intel
had before now, not been doing enough for. So,
we decided to launch a couple of different efforts.
We are increasing the number of our people that
we have in sub-Saharan Africa, in West Africa,
East Africa and South Africa. We have the plan
to implement over the coming year such that the
challenge of explaining to the people why IT can
make a difference is an easier task for us as
well as the governments and the eco-system partners
that we have in this part of the world.
How would you describe the level of technology
adaptation in this region?
Overall in the region, I think there are probably
two types of countries. Some of them I could call
'maturing countries' and the other 'emerging countries'.
Maturing countries are those who are on the verge
of becoming technology savvy market. These are
countries like South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia
are on the way to becoming maturing markets where
the masses are actually able and have access to
broadband Internet and to PCs. But it must be
confined to governmental use, to business use.
The consumers have not necessarily started using
it as much as they should.
And in emerging countries like I think Nigeria
is an example just like Egypt, Morocco and Kenya
where it needs collective efforts from every part
of the sector that we have to show on how technology
can make the difference. So, those are the two
parts that we are trying to tackle. And in both
of the places our mission has been to make sure
that the local |
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partners
that we have in these countries who actually
do IT focus enabling IT sales, system integration
and different parts of elements are trained
on latest and greatest technology so that
the people of Nigeria for instance have access
to the PC that anybody in the United States
or UK is using.
It is not three-year old, two-year old update
of technology but the technology that they
have access to with the right pricing anywhere
in the world, is the same in Nigeria; this
is our No 1 goal. We enable our local technological
partners to bring these products to the market. |
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Number 2 goal is that we do talk with business partners
as well as government; and we try to share some
best known methods from around the globe as to how
technology can be adopted in a normal execution.
As an example, any Ministry can actually use computers
to make the lives of its staff much easier by employing
data bases and making information readily available
in their normal systems of life. Another
very important element is that we are trying to
cooperate with them in running Government Assisted
PC Purchase schemes where we are trying to make
available these PCs available in a more affordable
manner, in a more easier to pay and easier to
access manner to the larger citizenry.
And I think the last important mission that we
have in this part of the world to make it different
is that it is a social responsibility project;
and it is very focused on education. In Nigeria,
we are running this programme called Intel Teach.
So far, we have managed to train 24, 000 teachers.
But as you know, there are about 700, 000 teachers
across the country. That means we have a long
way to go but somebody has to start somewhere.
We define education as our social responsibility
project and we believe that teachers are supposed
to have access to computers and understand how
to use PCs so that the students in the classroom
will be more globally competitive, and that they
would not be left behind in the use of Internet
or PCs from other students in Western Europe or
America or in other parts of Africa.
We are very much dedicated to this programme and
I see that in the coming couple of years, we will
be doing more of these types of activities in
Nigeria.
How does Intel view
the African continent?
Among us in Intel in this region, this is the
year of Africa. We have done expansions into different
parts of my region. Turkey is quite big and we
have a big deployment base there. In the previous
three years or so, we have been looking at the
Middle East and North Africa but this year, our
primary Number 1 focus is to make sure that we
have a very good strategy and base to cover Sub-Sahara
Africa. And I think Nigeria and South Africa are
the biggest proponents of that opening to the
continent.
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As
I mentioned, starting from my Chairman,
the entire line of management in Intel understands
that Africa has enormous opportunity and
possibilities. This is a region that is
growing at a wonderful rate of 20%-30% every
year.
I understand there are thousands of Internet
cafes in Nigeria; it shows that |
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people are
very, very ready to open up to the world, to communicate
with the world, to get the information and to understand
the latest development. And that they are not away from
using technology; they actually want to.
Intel recognizes this, that it is our responsibility
partly to bring this technology closer. So, I think
Africa is at the top of our agenda, my agenda absolutely.
And I can tell you that with the grave macro-economic
situation the world have been going through in the past
couple of months, Intel has never questioned or wavered
that doing an investment into Africa is the way to go.
We have very good plans on the different countries we
are going to cover. Nigeria will be our base for West
Africa expansion; and we are very dedicated in this
regard.
I am seeing that in the coming two years or so, it would
be a built-up of infrastructure for the future and for
Intel to be based in Sub-Sahara Africa. So, there lots
of opportunities in this region.
Are you going to replicate
some of the Corporate Social Responsibility projects
you did in some Middle East countries in Africa?
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This is
the first year we are probably building up in West
Africa; our activities in South Africa have been
quite comprehensive. So, the next step I think,
when I say the year of Africa, is the deployment
on a level that we need to go after and pursue the
coming two years in Sub-Saharan Africa. The deployment
we have and the activities that we undertake usually
happen in a progression or fashion. So, the two
that |
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we have started from our social responsibility perspective
in Nigeria is Number 1, the teachers' training programme.
And the other one is that we have this thing called
Inter-science in Nigeria Engineering that we have actually
been engaged. In terms of Maths and Science education,
we have brought a couple of students out and they made
it to the finals. So, this is another programme that
we are rolling out; that we just started.
I already talked about our Government Assisted PC Programme.
One of the elements of this whole idea of digitally
transforming the region is making sure that the countries
we operate have the right telecommunications infrastructure.
We define WIMAX as the communication of tomorrow. So
far we have done a couple of pilots in Nigeria for the
WIMAX programme and we've been co-operating with a couple
of companies to make this real and available for the
people of Nigeria.
What WIMAX does is that it actually brings wireless
broadband at affordable prices and it has been tested
in some emerging countries where it actually proved
to be the right way to get onto the Internet. So this
is the other way that we've been tackling things.
Another activity that we will be undertaking very shortly
in Nigeria is making some contents available in the
schools. It's the School to Skoool programme; it is
a content that Intel Technologies have developed in
Ireland. We decided that we should take this content,
modify it such that the teachers in Nigeria and the
school system in Nigeria could actually make use of
it. For specific way, schools that have access to the
Internet and they have our computers.
So, I think this is in the next level of progression.
We are trying to make sure that there are PCs in the
schools; we are trying to make sure that there is a
system of broadband accessibility to a WIMAX pilot in
the schools. And then on top of that right now, besides
encouraging science engineering, encouraging the students
to get involved in such activities will also enable
them get relevant contacts. I think we are going to
make this available.
Of course, for a larger Africa, our concern is that
we have formed the Knowledge Centre. What our Knowledge
Centre aims to do is that it is a research place where
various governments can go and visit, and dependent
on their requirements and needs for that particular
country; we have them come out with systems that will
leapfrog ICT applications in their countries. It's an
exciting thing coming to Africa and I think it's a good
step; and I think we are going to make it bigger.
When are we expecting
the launch of the Intel Technology Entrepreneurship
programme in Nigeria?
We just kicked this off last year but I will get back
to you with regard to what we've done in this area.
But I think it is basically co-operation with a select
few universities for internships. We need to look at
that but I think it is going to be in the future.
This was a programme we particularly did for the Middle
East; it is not even a global or worldwide programme.
It was for two universities; one of them is in Saudi
Arabia and the other is in Egypt. It is not necessarily
a standard larger programme.
What I rather expect we do is as we get much involved
in the Nigerian market and we understand what are the
particular needs as we have discovered the need to promote
technological education, if we believe that the country
needs more focus on higher education, that is what we
will switch into.
Right now, I think there is enormous amount of need
for Nigeria to grasp the educational needs of Primary
and Secondary School children. There is enormous need
to feed them with information on technology and the
understanding of global requirements. That is what our
focus stands to do. It might change over a couple of
years when we understand and establish the market.
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Intel
was originally part of the CANi programme; don't you think that
the introduction of the Intel Classmate PC programme will defeat
the objectives of CANi?
I think it is absolutely the right thing that we have indeed
initiated this GAPP programme together with the government;
I think it is very exciting and needed to be extended to other
partners in the market. The PC market as it is today is changing
enormously. I think within the last quarter of this year or
early next year, you are going to see numerous types of devices
that will be similar to |
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| the Classmate PC that
you mentioned here.
Classmate PC is great device because it is rugged; it is entry level,
the kids love it because it's so easy to use. But I think that as
a number of the devices that hitherto were not here become a lot
more available, a bunch of other partners are going to join this
programme. Intel is a Silicon manufacturer; it is the biggest micro-processor
company in the world. Everybody who makes PC is our customer.
It is our job to embrace all of our customers and all of such initiatives
that are going to make the right segmentation available for students
and for citizens of Nigeria.
So, I don't see any conflict whatsoever; the bigger the programme,
the more partners there are, the better for us.
Does Intel have any plan of building
an Assembling Plant in Nigeria?
We have very few fabrication plants in the world. There is one in
Ireland, one in Israel and we have a couple in the United States.
Now, we are building one in China; it's very few.
The way that the Silicon manufacturing industry is going is more
aggregation. In other words, rather than trying to build a bunch
of different production facilities, there is more of aggregation
for that. In that sense, it probably takes a 20-year process to
get that.
This is because when we enter the countries, we first enter with
our Sales and Marketing operations, which is to service the basics
and supporting the local channels as well ensure that the right
amount of technology and integration can happen through the local
channels in the country.
After that we start looking at education programmes where we try
to give back to the community and help in educating them. The third
level is that we start looking at research and development type
of activities. We start with futuristic research and development
type of activities. And along the way, we sometimes go into software
development as well.
After these stages, the final stage is that we could consider actually
building Assembling and Test Plant. For Assembling and Test Plant
again, we have a couple of them in the world. The final stage is
our micro-processor fabrication which actually requires extremely
high level of complexity of workers and using technology and many
different higher education institutes. It needs to be actually a
country that absorbs technology and can produce it; that's where
we will chose.
What effort is Intel making to discourage
the dumping of e-waste in third world countries?
In terms of our Production, Assembling and Test Plants, Intel is
conscious of a green environment. We make sure we do not contaminate
the environment at all. Intel discourages used PCs because it believes
that in the age and stage where Africa is, it is not good for us
to have such.
If you look at all Intel programmes, Intel does not support the
deployment of used PCs. And this we have done even in-country by
ensuring that government puts principles and policies that discourage
the importation of used PCs into the country.
Like I said, we cannot accept this because it is not just the dumping,
it is also the technology that is taken away; it is retrogressive.
One of the things that Intel has also done is that if you look at
our new set of processors, we are using more friendly materials
in the production of its equipment. At the local level, Intel is
working strategically to ensure that Africa is not made a dumping
ground. At the global level, Intel is exhuming all that is in products
that are detrimental to human existence.
To attest to our position, last year, we won the friendliest EU
Company. So you see there is a progressive aggression towards achieving
an eco-friendly system especially with regards to Intel.
How are the Nigerian people and government
responding to all of these programmes of Intel?
It is fascinating and Nigeria has been one of the spearheads of
all our Intel World Ahead programmes around the world. There is
an outstanding success by the team on what it has achieved. I relate
this to very technologically sensitive and responsive different
parties in Nigeria that we do business with.
So, from that perspective, I think pretty much, our channel office
has been really strong in enabling local companies. We have been
able to bring the latest and greatest technologies to those partners.
From the government perspective, indeed we have done a couple of
really good pilots including the WIMAX pilot and the Skoool initiative.
The government has been a very good supporter of our initiatives.
Nigeria is a very good opportunity to stand and to create great
partnerships for Intel in Africa.
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