SA firm to launch Made-in-Africa smartphone

Seemahale Telecoms, which makes telecommunications equipment in South Africa, is set to build a model that looks similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and runs on Google’s Android operating system, to sell at around 2,500 rand ($260), about N41,000.“It just didn’t seem right that there are hundreds of millions of phones in Africa, none of which […]

Seemahale Telecoms, which makes telecommunications equipment in South Africa, is set to build a model that looks similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and runs on Google’s Android operating system, to sell at around 2,500 rand ($260), about N41,000.
“It just didn’t seem right that there are hundreds of millions of phones in Africa, none of which are actually manufactured here,” Seemahale founder Thabo Lehlokoe said in an interview with Reuters.
“Not because of anything other than the fact that everybody tended to think that it is cheaper to do these things in China.”
Just last month, a Nigerian company announced that it would soon set up phone manufacturing plant in Osun State.
RLG Communications Limited said the phone factory would produce the phones using locally sourced materials.
Africa already has at least 600 million mobile phones, but the billion-strong population is growing rapidly, as are incomes, and governments are promoting connectivity in the hope that it can speed up delivery of education and health services.
Seemahale has yet to receive any pre-orders – the devices are still undergoing regulatory tests – but the company said one South African operator was already testing the phone and another was interested. The phones are designed to be rebranded by operators, with their own logos.
The components will come from Taiwan and China, but the phones will come part-assembled for the first few months, until factory workers are more familiar with the production process.
According to the telecoms advisory firm IDC research, Africa received shipments of nearly 30 million phones in the second quarter of 2013, a fifth of which were in the smartphone segment.
Other companies are also hoping consumers will embrace handsets made or designed in Africa.