By Charles Mgbolu

IBM West Africa has joined other IBM offices around the world for the global launch of the company’s centenary celebrations.

Marking the 100-year anniversary of its founding on June 16, 1911 with a year-long initiative, IBM will engage local communities and thought leaders with a series of activities themed around changing the way the world works.

“IBM has been present in West Africa since 1947 when we opened an office in Dakar, Senegal, as the headquarters of our business in the region,” Taiwo Otiti, Country General Manager, IBM West Africa, said, adding that “To mark our history in the region and to show our commitment to the future expansion of our business, we will celebrate IBM’s Centennial in West Africa with a number of activities including a day of service for the community in June when our employees will have the opportunity to apply their business skills and work experiences to address local critical community challenges and societal needs.”

Mr. Otiti’s sentiments followed those of IBM’s Chairman, President/CEO, Samuel J. Palmisano who said earlier this week “over the course of the last century, information technology has gone from a set of tools, to an industry, to a science, to a pervasive aspect of the modern world.

“IBM’s inventions are the underpinnings of today’s technology industry. They illustrate how IBM has consistently adapted to remain relevant to the changing needs of the modern world while touching the lives of many worldwide.” he said.

IBM started off making clocks, scales and cheese slicers, in addition to the punched-card tabulator then went on to manufacture typewriters, vacuum tube calculators, magnetic tape, the first disk drive, the memory chip, FORTRAN, fractals, ATMs, mainframes, mini-computers and personal computers. More recently IBM has become known for its leadership in the area of supercomputers, services, software and business analytics.