Kenya - Moving ahead with local businesses

Other initiatives

Over time, Total has successfully established long-term relationships with local service providers. Such partnerships have helped to drive up standards and build up the local skills needed to develop individuals and grow the market. Richard Githii, Marketing Director of the Kenyan firm Prosel, explains.

Prosel is a business that designs and produces illuminated signs. Our partnership with Total already dates back a long time, since we first worked together in 1991. It stepped up a gear in 2006, with a project to change the signs on the network of Mobil service stations bought by Total in East Africa; then in 2009, with the change of signs at Caltex stations.
Since 2013, we have been supporting Total in its service station “makeover” project, the main aim of which is help them fit more easily into their environment. We are supplying illuminated signs for the project in ten countries in central and east Africa, for 500 service stations.

International expansion

The reason we were able to take part in the project – although we were originally only a small company – is because Total allowed us to build up the necessary know-how bit by bit. For example, we were able to take advantage of training with some of our European counterparts and we discovered new equipment to improve the quality of our production.
Total currently represents 30% of our operations, but the Group has also enabled us to win numerous contracts with other clients thanks to the experience we have gained, and to expand the business internationally. We also cooperate with Total’s suppliers, which helps to secure supplies and equipment more easily, for example; in turn that gives us a chance to develop in new niches such as banking, the automotive sector or cell phones.
That means we can then help our own subcontractors to develop their own skills in two priority areas: safety, which is a very important topic in Africa, and quality standards.