Samsung to open electronics engineering academy in Ethiopia

Sunday, 15 May 2011-Addis Ababa, May 14 (WIC) - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, the South Korean electronics manufacturer, is planning to set up an electronics engineering academy in Ethiopia. George Ferriera, Samsung Electronics Africa, Chief Operating Officer (COO), said that the company plans to open up the engineering academy in Addis Ababa with an estimated cost of 1.5 million dollars.
The company opened the first electronics engineering academy in Africa at Boksburg, South Africa, in March 2011. The academy, which is equipped with electronics engineering lab, provides practical trainings to students from Grade 10 to 12 drawn from schools chosen by the company.According to the COO, the academy planned to be opened in Ethiopia will be similar to the one built in South Africa with a view to boosting local technical and engineering skills.
 
“The students will have practical access to the latest notebooks, tablet PCs and electronic boards to use and work on,” George Ferriera said. “They will have a place to eat and drink with transportation facilities provided”.
 
The company, which intends to have 10,000 electronic engineers in Africa by 2015, has also plans to set up assembly plants in different parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal.
 
“We are currently busy with feasibility studies to set up assembly plants for home appliances,” Ferriera said. “If we do so much business in Africa, we can do much investment in the continent”.
 
With an estimated cost of 300,000 dollars, the company recently also erected a clock tower on Teklehaimanot square, few blocks from the head office of its local distributor.
 
In its 2010 performance, Samsung registered a company record of 1.23 billion dollars revenues from its operations in Africa, a 31 percent growth from the previous year.
 
With a market share of 22 percent in consumer electronic products in Africa, as opposed to Nokia’s 54 percent in 2009, Samsung aims to generate 10 billion dollars in annual revenue from Africa by 2015.
 
“This year’s plan is to grow by 60 percent, which will effectively put us on par with Nokia,” Ferriera said.