Looking into their plans for the year ahead, Lexmark has revealed that work is underway to single out growth opportunities in the African market.

Although 2016 was a challenging year for Lexmark Africa in countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Ghana and Ethiopia, the African printing market still shows great potential for growth. With this in mind, Lexmark is developing a strategy that focuses on the African market for 2017, through a number of initiatives.

Operating through partnerships with a selected number of channel partners and vendors, Lexmark understands that growth in the African market will only be achieved through partnerships with like-minded individuals and companies.

This emphasises the need for channel partners to have a mutual appetite for growth, skill-set, resources, an understanding of Managed Print Services (MPS), alongside a desire to bring breadth to the market. These partners also need to have the right contacts and communication channels in the marketplace.

"We have seen increased interest in our management of content and managed printing services in the financial and insurance sectors in Nigeria and Angola, furthermore, this year has also brought great success in Mauritius from an operational perspective. This growth opportunity affirms that this is the right time for Lexmark to further expand its efforts in the African market," says Nathan Nayagar, Managing Director for Lexmark - South Africa & English Speaking Africa.

Managed Print Services (MPS) allows businesses to outsource the management of their print infrastructure to channel specialists and vendor-provided solutions, reducing over-expenditure on time and money, while removing headaches such as maintenance issues and worries about downtime.

Along with their strategic international partnerships to ensure that they have the right infrastructure in place, Lexmark believes that its core advantage is its own technology, which enables the company to tailor-make services based on what the clients need. This shifts the focus away from pushing a product to rather placing additional weight on enhancing value within business-customers.