Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA) (www.Canon-CNA.com) a leader in imaging solutions, has been finding new ways to get closer to its community during these strange times. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world and the necessary lockdowns continue to make this a challenging time for all people, Canon is doing what it can to support its community through warranty extensions and community outreach programs.

On May 7th, last week, CCNA announced that it would be extending warranty till 30th June on all Canon products whose Standard Warranty expired during the government imposed lockdown period. The company has stepped up its customer care program with additional service experts answering queries and requests from the Canon community across Africa. Canon further simplifying the customer support process through the customercare@canon-cna.com email address.

“These are testing times for people around the world. Our thoughts go out to all those severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic and the associated crisis. Whether at home, doing essential work, or fighting on the frontline, we must all work together to control the spread of the virus and mitigate the impact of the crisis as a whole,” says Somesh Adukia, Managing Director, Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA). “We hope our warranty extension, online learning portals, and customer care improvements will create one or two fewer problems for our customers to solve or encourage them to make the most of time at home.”

In addition to the warranty extension for customers, Canon has scaled up its medical equipment production to support our vital healthcare systems. Starting with the rapid deployment (https://eu.medical.canon/covid-19) of their container-based Medical Scan Unit and their truck-mounted fleet of mobile imaging trailers. A complimentary 90-day license for Canon Medical’s CT Lung Analysis was also made available soon after. Canon has also teamed up with Nagasaki University and the NIID to develop a COVID-19 test (https://bit.ly/2zngluh) that promises to provide results in just 10 minutes.

Canon is also working hard to expedite the delivery of parts (https://bit.ly/2zkBcOX). For medical equipment but also for the cameras, printers, and various imaging products that are vital to so many businesses and individuals around the world. Established in August 1937, Canon has already experienced and survived a number of global crises by always keeping customers at the heart of their business strategy. Part of Canon’s corporate philosophy of “Kyosei” — harmoniously living and working together in happiness into the future.

In recent years, the CCNA team have engaged directly with their enthusiastic African community through annual Discovery Week (DW) events. In the past year, CCNA has held these multi-day activity programs in Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Algeria, and Nigeria, where they have been enjoyed by photography enthusiasts, printing professionals, and the media alike. DW is also the highlight of the professional calendar for Canon’s staff around the continent, giving them a chance to interact and understand the customer face-to-face.

Today, we may not be able to explore the lively post-industrial cultural-district of Treichville, Abidjan, as we did in our urban photo walk at DW-Cote d’Ivoire-2019. Nor can we venture out for a Blue Hour Photoshoot in the Casbah district of Algiers, as we did at DW-Algeria-2019. However, this is not the time to sideline your passion for photography, this is the time to nurture it. Take the time to understand your camera and lenses, assess and organise your photo collection, and learn new skills to take your photography to the level. The home is your landscape, the time is your motivator, and the Canon website is your window to the world of photography.

For those stuck at home, Canon has maintained a free registration (https://bit.ly/2WU7usU) to its online learning portal for students of all ages, allowing photography enthusiasts to hone their skills despite the lockdown. Across Africa and around the world, Canon encourages everyone to engage and connect with its various learning and social media platforms. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced photographer, there has never been a better time to improve your knowledge, skills, and technique. Canon’s online learning portal has tips, tricks, and classes to help the entire Canon community to make the most of their time in lockdown.

“Our past Discovery Week events were testament to our commitment to maintaining a close relationship with the users of our products. We want to create an interaction that allows users to benefit from experts and share real feedback, but also allow Canon teams to feed customers' expectations on to the R&D teams to innovate with. Discovery Week is also an opportunity to thank our customers for their loyalty” concludes Somesh Adukia, Managing Director. “Customers remain at the heart of Canon's strategy and we look forward to meeting our community again in future Discovery Weeks around Africa. For now, however, we encourage everyone to stay home, stay safe, and stay connected.”