This week, Channel Post MEA interviewed with Joab Ngai, Managing Director of Rwanda’s iMast Africa. The Company was last year’s best distributor for Cyberoam in Rwanda. We bring you the excerpts…
Channel Post MEA: Congratulations upon your award from Cyberoam in 2014. Please talk us through the IT business prospects for iMast Africa in 2015 in Rwanda?
iMast Africa: Rwanda is a young economy that I would say has accepted IT as a driver of the economy. It’s a small economy compared to its East African sisters.
Briefly outline your company’s focus in Rwanda and the wider East Africa? Are you an IT distributor or reseller?
iMast Africa is an IT distributor focusing on security solutions. Our focus is on public institutions and financial institutions edging on the criticality of their information.
What type of IT services does your company offer in Rwanda?
Network management and security solutions.
Do you have subsidiaries in other East African countries?
We have subsidiaries in Burundi and Eastern DRC
What are the main areas of IT where Imast has expertise in?
Our expertise and focus is in Network security
You are a partner of Cyberoam in Rwanda, how competitive is the IT security market in Rwanda?
Apart from the limited size of the Market, Rwanda is a good IT market and very future looking for Cyberoam. iMast and partners have managed to edge out vendor competition with key institutions adopting The Cyberoam Technology
Which other IT vendors do you represent at the moment?
Kasperky Lab, Dlink, Cisco and Tripwire
Are you looking to expand your product portfolio?
We are continually endeavoring to better our portfolio
How challenging is it for your company to retain qualified IT professionals?
As any other company in a niche market, retaining professionals is a challenge but iMast has always strived to keep the best in the market through competitive remuneration packages and other incentives.
What do you see as the most challenging issue in the Rwanda IT channel at the moment?
The biggest challenge is the business cycle which is evidently longer than in our sister countries
How do you hope to overcome some of the pressing channel issues in Rwanda?
Widening the funnel and the network of partners
What will drive most of your growth this year?
Opening up the Burundi and DRC market to beef up our already established foot in Rwanda.
