Mrs. Florence Seriki: Driving Technology across the Frontiers

The story of Omatek Computers is like the proverbial mustard seed which though was the smallest of the seeds but later turned out to become the biggest of the trees.
From the humble beginning of just being a computer selling firm in 1986, Mrs. Florence Seriki imbued with innovative ideas has been able to transform the company to a conglomerate that we are now talking of Omatek Engineering Services Ltd., Omatek Ventures and Omatek Computers. Mrs. Seriki is actually having her hands in many pies and she is proving to be the Amazon of technology she is.
The dream of Mrs. Florence Seriki, managing director/ chief executive officer of Omatek is to manufacture world-class computer that will be at par with other computer manufacturing companies elsewhere in the world. To achieve this great ambition, the company has adopted quality of products as its watchword. No wonder banks are always ready to cue into Omatek ideas whenever the opportunity comes. Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) had in 2000 offered Omatek Ventures under the SME scheme, credit facility that led to the establishment of Omatek Computers.
First Bank, Nigeria’s premier bank also staked N1 billion in Omatek in 2007 to finance ownership of computers by Nigerians. The First Bank’s  Ni billion stakes was to enable credit facility for specific categories of Nigerians to purchase Omatek Computers with payment stretched over several months as Omatek is more than ever ready to deliver computers to every home through the Computer for All Nigerians Initiative (CANi).
The company has also been unleashing top level notebooks that are pocket friendly to provide systems that Nigerian youths and teachers can deploy effectively for a functional education in the country. The affordability of these products is making Nigerians proud owners of laptops.
The oversubscription witnessed when the company floated a private placement at the stock market to boost its capital base is a testimony of the level of confidence people repose in the management ability of Mrs. Florence Seriki.  The company has become the first ICT Company to be listed on the stock market in Africa.
As Seriki is making efforts to change the technology landscape of the country, part of the company’s focus is to equip the younger generation from primary to tertiary institutions IT skills in order to establish an IT-driven population that would create a knowledge-based economy. She has often used her versed traveled wealth of ideas to tell Nigerians that all hope is not lost about our country becoming a great nation in technology if we can put our acts together. She is public speaker of note such that there is hardly any ICT event in Nigeria that Mrs. Seriki will not be asked to deliver a paper.
To further sustain the quality of its products, Omatek has partnered the academic community into joint ventures for the establishment of research and development in their institutions. The University of Ibadan at present has an Omatek centre of excellence where research and development is specially carried out for Omatek Computers. This shows a vision for sustainability.
Mrs. Seriki has also been an apostle of local content that there is no event she attends without making a case for local content creation . She is so passionate about it that other ICT stakeholders are also singing the same song everywhere. In one of the events she attended, Seriki criticized the madness for the rush of foreign made goods and she said “What could be more than that if in the same country where slogan for patronage of local goods daily rents the air and you wake up and read advertorials in the newspapers especially from the government quarters asking for foreign brands to be supplied to them”.  For Omatek Computers and other Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs) to still remain in business there is need to protect the market from external aggressors that are ready to kill competition.
Omatek last year established a multi- million naira factory in Ghana to replicate the same success story it has been able to achieve in Nigeria and the company as heard is making efforts to extend its computer manufacturing to other African countries.
The company has recruited channel partners, resellers, franchisees and service providers across Africa in line with its growth strategy and part of the efforts of the company to make its products available to end users. Omatek has by this arrangement empowered the people  by creating for them an avenue for making money.