Kenya set aside millio/ns of dollars, South Africa's Onyx released the first African-made smartphone, and Egypt's SICO produc/ed the Nile X. Rwanda, with the Mara Phone, joins the club this year.
Africa's digital rev/olution is here in earnest.
By April 2019, Rwanda could be at the fo/refront of a technological revolution in Africa. Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s Minister for Information and Co/mmunications Technology (ICT) and Innovation, on the 7th of February, announced to the country's parli/amentary Standing Committee on Education, Technology, Culture and Youth that a smartphone manufactu/ring plant is set to be opened in Rwanda by Mara Corporation. The Minister said, "Smartp/hones are important ICT tools since there are some dig/ital services that only require smartphones such as acc/ess to land services among others. There is also need to ensure affordability of smartphones whose high cost prevents citizens from benefit/ing from various digital services. . We hope that the plant to locally produce smartphones will boost access.”
Mara C/orporation chief, Ashish Thakkar anno/unced the plans last year at the Africa Investment Forum in Johan/nesburg. He said, “China has Huawei, Xiaomi; the U.S has iPho/ne and finally Africa has Maraphone. This project will show the potential and abi/lity that Africa can produce high quality and affordable smartphones in Africa, by Africans, for Africans and for the rest of the wor/ld.
We have a few that are assem/bled in Africa but nothing is truly being manufactured in Africa. Thanks to the African Develop/ment Bank, that changes today.” He also pointed out that the manufacturing plan/ts would be in South Africa and Rwanda.
Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the AfDB, says the value of Africa’s mobile mon/ey industry is projected to top $14 billion by 2020. It is a market with great potential and ma/ny countries are angling to get the king's share of the growing market. Kenya put aside $10 million to finan/ce the hardware and software industry. The co/untry's goal is to have a locally made smartphone. South Africa's Onyx Connect also announced, in 2016, that it would be maki/ng a locally produced smartphone. Bloomberg reported that O/nyx was the first company ever to manufacture smartphones in Africa. In Egypt, the Nile X smartphone, with most compone/nts manufactured in Egypt was also launched in 2017. Rwa/nda joins these and other ambitious African giants in leading the digital revolution. Rwanda has alw/ays been driven in the digital sector; the country launched its first locally ma/nufactured phone, Alira, in 2008. It was, of course, not a smartphone but the country's intentions were ma/de very clear: Rwanda was determined to have a presence in the market.