Mobile phones made in Kenya for sale at affordable prices
Mobile phones manufactured at Safaricom's Athi River factory in Kenya will be sold at prices up to 30 percent cheaper than imported ones.
Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa said the price reduction will help the telecommunications company increase the use of 4G phones in Kenya and thus help increase its income from data business . He has been quoted by Saturday as saying that: "Our goal in making phones in the country is to reach price levels that allow customers to afford the phones . The phone assembly plant, known as East Africa Device Assembly Kenya Limited, started operating in October last year and is run as a joint venture between Safaricom, TeleOne, and Jamii Telkom. The factory can produce about three million phones a year, and can increase the number according to demand . Ndegwa said the factory aims to export to the East African region and expand production beyond mobile phones . In addition, he said apart from the production of 4G system phones, the factory also has the ability to create other devices, such as computer CPUs . There are already several phones manufactured in Africa such as Mara Phones, Onyx Connect, and Mi-Fone . By 2021, the global mobile phone market was valued at $457.18 billion, and is expected to reach $792.51 billion by 2029. Currently, Africa is not a major producer of mobile phones as the majority of production is in other regions besides the continent. It has a big market .
