Business News of Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Source: dailyguideafrica.com

Samsung unveils new plan for Ghana

Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Electronics Africa, Sung Yoon Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Electronics Africa, Sung Yoon

Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA) has detailed a new vision for Ghana in 2018, reaffirming its commitment to delivering the highest quality products and services to the market.

The electronics manufacturer has invested heavily in the country through its various corporate citizenship initiatives, and has plans to do more of the same this year.

Samsung remains a market leader in Ghana. However, in an increasingly tough operating environment, the company recognises the need to keep innovating.

“As a dynamic and innovative organisation, SEWA is constantly exploring ground-breaking ways of providing its customers with best-in-class products, sales, support and marketing functions,” said President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Samsung Electronics, Africa, Sung Yoon.

The electronics manufacturer has developed a great line-up of products for release as we head into 2018, all of which are designed specifically to meet consumers’ needs in terms of seamless connectivity and efficiency. New developments such as Bixby, which makes Samsung devices smarter and The Wall, the world’s first modular, micro-LED, 146-inch TV, are a small taste of what Ghanaians can expect in future.

Sung Yoon said Samsung has created a niche for itself in Ghana by offering quality products.

This has impacted positively on the Ghanaian economy in various ways such as fostering knowledge/technology transfer and creating employment directly and indirectly for millions of people.

The company has also heavily invested in corporate social responsibility in areas such as education, environmental sustainability and economic empowerment, through the numerous CSR projects it has undertaken.

Pioneering new CSR initiatives

Corporate citizenship was a major focus for Samsung in Ghana last year.

The subsidiary pioneered Smile with Samsung, partnering with Operation Smile, an international medical charity organisation, to fund the cleft surgeries of more than 300 Ghanaian children.

Samsung also continued to strengthen its efforts to promote female leadership in the technology space through its Female Professionals in Electronics project, which it launched in 2016 in partnership with GIZ and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report, there was still a 47% global gender gap when it came to STEM graduates at tertiary level in 2016.

As such, the project seeks to up-skill Ghanaian women with technical and electronics skills so that they can compete more effectively with their male counterparts in the workplace.

To date 150 young women have been trained.

“While our primary business objective is to come up with a great lineup of products aimed at meeting our consumers’ needs in terms of seamless connectivity and efficiency, we will also continue to focus significantly on investing in Ghana through our various corporate citizenship programmes,” Sung Yoon declared.