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A Chinese company has revealed its smartphone project in Kenya
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Smart phone factory. Shenzhen TeleOne Technology, a Chinese mobile retailer, is teaming up with telecom operators Safaricom and Jamii to set up a factory in Kenya. file image | Swimming pool
Shenzhen TeleOne Technology, a Chinese mobile device retailer, is partnering with telecom operators Safaricom and Jamii Telecom in a project to set up a low-cost smartphone factory in Kenya.
Stephen Kiptinis, Safaricom’s chief corporate affairs officer, told The daily business The three-member consortium is in an advanced stage of setting up the assembly plant, which is key to implementing President William Ruto’s plan to locally produce the cheapest smartphones in Africa.
“The consortium is closing up the loose ends around the investment. I understand that manufacturing should start within the next couple of months… Once the manufacturing process starts, it’s a matter of time. I don’t think it will take six months for the finished product to reach a retail level,” he said. Mr. Kiptiness.
The Chinese company, which has little online presence, is a subsidiary of the Tinko Group that engages in the manufacturing, production and sales of alkaline, carbon and rechargeable batteries.
On the About page of its website, Shenzhen Tinko describes itself as one of the first technology companies involved in the production of batteries in China.
“The plans are at an advanced stage to set up the assembly unit. As far as I understand, the assembly units are in the country or about to enter the country for the purposes of the actual physical setup of the manufacturing plant,” said Mr Kiptiness.
He was speaking on the sidelines of Safaricom’s launch of “Gomoka na Go Monthly,” a three-month promotion that will see customers win cash prizes and a data package when purchasing daily and monthly data plans.
The smartphone factory is set to be located within Konza Technopolis in Malele, Machakos Province.
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Kiptinis said the union was formed by the government in pursuit of its pledge to manufacture affordable smartphones and revolutionize the country’s digital economy.
Dr. Ruto revealed the plan to produce the smartphones locally in December last year, saying that the devices would cost less than $40 (5,604, at the current exchange rate). But Kiptiness said the government was working with the consortium to see how the price could be lowered further.
“The sweet spot is maybe $40-50 (MYSh7,006). If it can go down, even better, but let’s wait and see what happens on the manufacturing end and once the phones hit the market because there’s a lot of work to do.” What the government is doing along with the consortium to create a product that will be more affordable when it comes to the retail space.
Last month, Safaricom chairman Karanja Gecheri appeared before a parliamentary committee and fought a heated battle against new taxes in the 2023 Finance Act, arguing that it would be impossible to achieve the proposed price because the tax system would raise the cost. From locally assembled smartphones to Sh11,500.
MPs expanded duty-free imports of raw materials for smartphone assembly but kept the rest of the taxes.
Dr. Roto had set an ambitious timeline to deliver the cheap smartphone promise in eight to 12 months of this year.
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If successful, the project would be a game-changer in boosting smartphone penetration rates in a country where feature phone usage marginally outstrips smartphone adoption.
In its sector statistics report for the quarter ending December last year, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) stated that there were a total of 63.4 million mobile phones in the country, of which 33.6 million or 53.1 per cent were feature phones while 29.7 million (46.9 per cent) were feature phones. Smart.
“This trend indicates an increase in demand and uptake for smartphones driven primarily by demand for broadband-enabled services and device accessibility,” the CA said in the report.
Eliud Awalu, Cabinet Secretary in the Cabinet for Information and Communications Technology, has pointed out in the past that low appetite for smartphones is an obstacle to uptake of a range of government and financial services.
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