Locally-assembled smartphones in Kenya appear to be enjoying great demand as Kenyans have bought 268,000 government-backed, locally-assembled smartphones over the last 6 months. This was revealed by Kenya’s ICT Cabinet Secretary, Eliud Owalo.
This number represents 80 per cent of the 330,000 smartphones that made up the first batch of smartphones released by the East Africa Device Assembly Kenya (EADAK) Limited. The EADAK was launched in October 2023 by President William Ruto. The Cabinet Secretary, Mr Owalo, noted that the impressive demand is a pointer to the unlimited market in the country.
“As we speak, we have managed to churn out, through this facility, a total of 330,000 devices, out of which 268,000 have already been consumed. This means there is unlimited demand for these smart devices,” Owalo said at the opening of the three-day Digital Transformation in East Africa Conference which was held in Nairobi.
The Cabinet Secretary also said that EADAK will not be limited to just locally-assembled devices as there are plans to embark on local manufacture of phones before venturing into the local manufacture of both computer hardware and software.
Locally-assembled smartphones in Kenya
In October 2023, the government of William Ruto launched the EADAK intending to produce locally-assembled smartphones as well as develop the technical know-how to fully manufacture its own smartphones as well as other digital devices from scratch. The company is a joint venture between the government and Kenya’s largest telco operators, Safaricom and Jamii Telecom, with support from the Chinese phone maker, Telel as well as the Industrial Technology Training Company Limited.
The facility is located within the Konza Technopolis. During its launch, the government claimed that the EADAK facility had been built with the capacity to produce up to three million mobile phones every year.
Six months later, the EADAK appears to have delivered on its first major mandate which is to successfully assemble smartphones that are widely accepted and consumed, not just by Kenyans, but by East Africans at large. The devices assembled include the 4G-enabled Neon 5 Smarta which costs Sh7,499 (roughly N65,400), and the Neon 6 Ultra which costs Sh8,999 (roughly N78,500).
The fate of locally-assembled phones in Nigeria
While the Kenyan authorities are celebrating the impressive demand for Kenya-made smartphones, the situation appears to be quite different in Nigeria where the future of locally-assembled smartphones continues to look bleak indeed.
Boasting over 320 million SIM cards and more than 220 million active mobile connections, yet, as of September 2023, over 99% of mobile devices in Nigeria are still being imported from abroad, with monthly imports estimated at a staggering N50 billion.
In 2021, Nigeria’s former president, Muhammadu Buhari unveiled Nigeria’s first locally-assembled smartphone, the ITF Mobile. The phone was so named because they were produced by the Model Skills Training Centre of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF); an agency under the Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment.
But three years down the line, there is no evidence to suggest the phones have been mass-produced and made available to the consuming public. Perhaps Nigeria needs to learn from the Kenyans how they were able to achieve so much in six short months. The key remains in viable partnerships reminiscent of the one the Kenyan government had with Safaricom, Telel etc to actualise the plan of building a working facility.
One such partnership could involve companies like Tecno (Transsion) which had long indicated an interest in manufacturing smartphones locally in Nigeria. As far back as 2018, Tecno’s former General Manager and current Corporate Vice President at Transsion, Stephen Ha said:
“Nigeria is a key interest market for us and we have considered setting up a massive factory here that will not only create a lot of jobs for Nigerians but also empower her millennials with key interests in technology to get hands-on and be more involved in the development and design of the world next revolutionary smartphones.
It might be worthwhile to explore such partnerships. In 2019, Rwanda became the first African country to make a smartphone.
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