Leading mobile handset manufacturer Nokia is set to launch Nokia N8, which is replete with new video editing and exiting features. The product will be unveiled in the market by Kenneth Oyola, Nokia’s General Manager for East and Southern Africa, Middle East and Africa. Oyola is famed to deliver the strategic growth of Nokia in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa and Mozambique. Before his appointment, he led the Sales team for East and Southern Africa and undertook all the responsibilities of developing the Nokia distribution space across all the markets, maintaining strategic partnerships with operators across the region. As the first African General Manager, one of his vision is to support and fundraise for those able African leaders with technological initiatives, and he is able to do this because of his understanding of the market as a leader.

Oyola acknowledges the initial engagements, Nokia as a company has worked with the government which they are lobbying together to remove taxes and he is going to drive this agenda to Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique.

On the issue of electronic waste, Oyola would want to have an understanding of how the private sector is doing to reduce this; the measures that are being laid inoder to cut down on electronic waste.

Nokia is also working with the government to slash out work permits for it to spread its expertise and increase its market boundaries. As if this is not enough, according to oyola, the company wants to develop the entrepreneurial space by creating a developer ecosystem especially for the locals for instance, university students with prowess in applications development.

With cloud computing, despite the low market maturity level of this technology in the East and Southern Africa, Nokia maintains their own ‘cloud’. This is evident with the Ovi services application where Ovi contacts is synchronized in a space where a user contacts are stored and automatic synchs are also made at a specific period set by the system. By this, the user is assured of his/her stuff in case the phone is lost.

Ovi store is part of this, and oyola says publishers will have an easy time to publish their articles after customizing the RSS feeds in this feature. In relation to publishing, the company is also organizing and sponsoring a boot camp to train students on developing publishing apps and this exercise will be facilitated by experts from overseas. As the new General Manager, Oyola is also focusing on having an East African warranty for Nokia merchandise instead of sticking to the traditional country specific warranties of their products.