Bolarinwa Onawola, is chief operating officer, Brian Integrated Systems Limited, a 100% owned Nigerian company with a factory for the assemblage of high quality and reliable its branded desktops, laptops, netbooks and classmate computers.
It recently launched a Windows Tablet in partnership with Intel & Microsoft.
Onawola spoke to peter ugwu on Brian’s plan for mobile devices market, among other industry issues. 

OEMs in Nigeria
The main thing is that Nigerians are still after foreign brands, not minding that there are competitive brands developed locally by Nigerians.
That has been an undoing to the original equipment manufacturers. We should consider the fact that before those brands enter our markets; they usually look at their own market.
But we are not deterred by that. We are rolling out and it is our believe that the local content drive of the Ministry of Communication Technology, the policies, programmes and deliberate actions been taken will help push locally made IT equipment into the market.

OEMs and Low Standard Products
Nigerians should know that gone are the days any company would want to gamble with its fortunes. Recently, I was in a conference organized by the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), we were discussing issues relating to standards and how the gap can be bridged.
With what SON said, I think they are working towards ridding the market of fake standards. As a company you wouldn’t want to be caught napping; meeting the standard is a must, if you want to sustain your business in the contemporary business world.
SON was at our lab few days ago, to assess our products and processes and we got top rating for it. No doubt, there are still some sub-standard good in Nigeria, but the level such good penetration in the market is being checkmate.

Local Manufacturing
Presently, we assemble computer products. However, we are working towards building a world class factory in a short period, where we can manufacture the computer components in Nigeria.
 It will take the market by surprise; although there are others who could boost of that already, but we are looking at a plant that will drive employment generation in the country, and add value to the country’s economy too.
There are challenges why companies actually delay in setting up plants in the country. The issue of power is still there, multiple taxations, but what we are thinking is that partnership is a good idea for businesses to grow, however, for the countries that produce these products, how did they get started.
They started from somewhere; basically from research and development. We need to put more resources and drives towards research and development.
A wealthy country is not the one that consumes, rather the one that produces. In the case of Brian, that is what we intend to achieve. We want to produce locally, for us and others. Our drive is to start in Nigeria and take such Nigerian brand to other parts of Africa. For us to do that, we need to invest heavily in research. We have mentors we need to follow for guidance.

R&D in Nigeria
Let me start by reminding us that oil and gas market is pass through a phase that it might not rise to compete with IT on the global market.
How do I mean, IT now provides the currency for any nation to measure in the global competitive market. To diversify our economy means infusing IT into the facets of the economy. Unfortunately, we are not doing enough as regards R&D.
We are not there yet. Until we realize that no country succeeds consuming, we will not get there. It might be capital intensive, but we need to put in the capital now. Today is the right time to invest on developing the R &D for the sake of the future generation.

Software Industry
India today has not drip of oil, but the Software market is worth over $70 billion per annum. We need to wake up to the fact that the IT industry is a big industry. I see it as becoming bigger than the oil and gas, both in the global and local scenes.
While oil is dwindling, IT is just increasing. Of course, in the early 20th Century, you didn’t get to hear about students in the Universities studying building applications, but now they do. It is a step in the right direction, but all we need to do is that, not just the government, rather collective measures to encourage the youths.
We need specialized courses tailored into developing apps. Recently, I was in a commercial bus and besides me was a lady. Before she boarded, as the bus was approaching the bus stop she was penning something down. When she joined us, she continued. That got me thinking; I was able to understand that she was putting pen on paper regarding an application the team was working on; the processes to develop the apps. That tells you the resilience of an average Nigerian youth.
People are beginning to tap into that area of ICT sector. All we need to do as a nation is to encourage them. We have the human resources to achieve whatever we want to achieve in the sector.
We need to start experimenting theories we have heard all these years. It is unacceptable that a Computer Science graduate he might not know the rudiments of Computer Science. I think our school curriculum should be reviewed to the school curriculum to catch the youths at their prime age and tailor their minds to the happenings in the ecosystem.

Why Brian Tablet?
We wanted a device that is portable and everybody can recognize and go along with; a device that will give user comfort even while in office, because it suites their work.
Through that, it makes increases the productivity level of the users. It also enables people to play due to the fact it has a combination of work and pleasure. These happen even on the go.

Differentiating Brian Tab from Others
Apart from the fact that it supports users to be productive, there are salient features in it. The RAM is 2GB, the memory size is 32GB and expandable to 64GBs.
It comes with Bluetooth, keyboard, that makes the operating very easy. You might want to detach it or use it together with the magnetic keyboard and it stands.
With the HDMI, you do not need to move about with your projector. The tab is built that you can have a seamless presentation with it. All you need to do is connect the HDMI cord to an enabled HDMI television or device and it comes live.
Another salient feature we considered will building the tablet, we thought people will have the need to print any document developed or downloaded into the device, without necessarily transferring it to anywhere such as flash drive.
We were able to achieve that, you can be able to print from any printer through the device. We made provision for a port and the connecting cable; anything that has USB port will work perfectly with it.

Market Penetration Drives
Since Nigeria is our home, for now, we need to start from here. But I can tell you that we are looking beyond the shores of the country.
We are studying the African markets and will penetrate those markets as the needs rise. By then, we have seen the good news and how it works.
At the moment, we are not relenting in making sure it becomes a well known brand and device. And I can confirm to you that there is no part of the country we are not gaining ground. We are moving from both in the corporate, industry; penetrating educational institutions too.

Partnership with Intel & Microsoft
What we wanted is a sector that is IT driven. We are moving into schools to register our strong presence, because the educational institutions are working towards IT compatibility.
To achieve that, we need giants in the industry to work with. Intel and Microsoft are global brands that are relevant to what we are doing based on their operational principles.
So, we do not want the teachers be left out, because this is a generation where students are getting smarter due to the obvious reasons of availability of smart devices that are internet enabled.

E-Learning Pack
That is one of the peculiarities we are pursuing, e-learning. We have a locally tailored application called C-fox that can be used by teachers and students alike. It has recommended courses which makes it easier for users to teach or learn. 

Brian Initiatives in The Market
We started from the desktops to laptops and then now to Windows tablet. The name Brian is a known brand, because we started from the days of old with our branded laptops, desktops and we are following the dynamics of the market.
Now, everybody is going micro; they want something small they can go along with, not necessarily to large that they need to drop it somewhere to operate. That has impacted our current line of products. And we are looking at the peculiarities of this environment. For instance, the Windows Tablet, the battery life is eight hours.
Power is still an issue in our environment, and here is a device that you can be able to use when you want to use it. So, we have positioned the battery lifespan to last longer; you can work, go on break, and resume, with the device being there for you.