GN Electronics to assemble TV sets locally

GN Electronics, a Ghanaian company, has opened discussions with globally reputed Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) aimed at getting permission to assemble their brand of television (TV) sets in the country for the local and West African markets.

Should the discussions conclude successfully, the company will become one of the first institutions in the country to assemble TV sets for the local and sub-regional market.

Currently, almost all TV sets retailed and used in the country are imported from the western world, where they are often assembled in the respective offices of the brands and then imported here for retailing.

The Head of GN Electronics, Ms Marisa Susan Fee, told the Daily Graphic that the company was aiming at putting an end to that development.

“The OEMs hold the intellectual property, the technical know-how, the drawings and the building processes. By partnering with them, GN Electronics will receive the know-how of building their products to meet their quality standards,” she said.

Beyond helping to reduce the country's increasing appetite for imported electronics and the associated capital flight, Ms Fee said the initiative would make proper use of the country's human resource and talent in electronics.

“We have good institutions with good electronics engineering programmes and good students but not many places for them to go to. By creating the assembly plant in Elmina, we are building not only a work place but also a training environment for national service persons and interns alike,” she added.

Starting small

Already, the National Communications Authority (NCA) has certified three models of the company's set top boxes (STBs) as wholesome for the local market.

The STBs – T2 Free To Air (FTA) model, T2 Conditional Access System (CAS)-enabled and combo S2/T2 – were certified after the authority subjected them to testing under internationally accepted standards.

The certification by the industry regulator paved the way for the company, which was incorporated this year, to continue with the assembling of the STBs, which it started earlier in the year.

The company's head explained that the first combo box was meant to satisfy both satellite and terrestrial customers in West Africa who were embracing the ongoing digital migration.