Raspberry Pi Focuses on Nigerian Market, Showcases Tech Products in Lagos

Emma Okonji

Having launched its first product in 2012, with subsequent launch of various products across different market segments that have recorded huge sales around the world, Raspberry Pi, yesterday in Lagos, showcased its different varieties of products that are driving digital transformation globally, with a promise to focus attention on Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya and other African countries in the next one year.

Chief Commercial Officer at Raspberry Pi, Mr. Mike Buffham, who gave the promise while giving an overview of Raspberry Pi products, said all the products from the company, were designed and developed for high performance with low cost, as individuals and organisations use Raspberry Pi products to build their own solutions that address specific challenges.   

“In 2014, we launched a second tier of the product called Compute Modules. This has become really popular since then. So it’s basically the same product, which we call the industrial module design. So the Raspberry Pi 1 and the Compute Module 1 use the same, basically the heart of the product is the same. The current one, the Compute Module 5, is exactly the same compute technologies as the Raspberry Pi 5, but it’s put in an industrial module footprint. So a customer can design and do mass production with a Raspberry Pi 5,” Buffham said. 

So customers can take our module and use it to build their own motherboard that uses the functionality and the input-output capabilities and the connectivity that they want specifically for their application, Buffham further said, adding that there is a huge market for this type of computing business.

Although the educational part of our business is only about 30% of our business today, while 70% of our business is with industrial customers today, but the educational enthusiast market is still big, and we estimate that’s just under $5 billion globally today, so a very big market, Buffham further said.

One of the great advantages customers see with the Raspberry Pi in the industrial marketplace is time-to-market. They can take the product, they can design with it, because it is available in small quantities and in large quantities, Buffham said.

Addressing the issue of technical support, Buffham said the company had developed partners and had constantly trained them to provide technical support, to complement the online training the company conducts on a regular basis.

Giving further details of the Raspberry Pi products, its Sales Manager, Middle East and Africa, Ken Okolo, said people have used Raspberry Pi products to build solutions in over 15 market segments such as Sensors/IoT in airports for tracking of assets, Smart Home, Agri-Tech, Industrial Automation, Fleet Management, Audio market for meeting rooms and conferences, as well as Enterprise Computing, Personal Computing, Digital Signage and Estate Security. According to him, people are happy using the products because they are reliable, have longer life, Cost Effectiveness, Energy Savings and Dual Monitor Support, among other features.

Okolo listed several global companies and universities that are using the Raspberry Pi hardware device to develop their own solutions.

“Raspberry Pi hardware devices energize almost our manufacturing sector in-country to start building hardware to solve our own local problems instead of thinking how to buy new components for every solution they want to develop. Raspberry Pi therefore makes it easy for those who want to manufacture, build their own hardware, to go to market quickly and easily,” Okolo said.