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In recent years, entrepreneurs, multinationals, governments and telecommunication companies have entered the mobile phone market with the goal of creating African-made handsets able to gain market share with Transsion, Apple and Samsung.
Countries such as Egypt and Kenya, MTN, Africa's largest mobile network operator, and the Onyx Connect startup have either announced projects or launched their own local phone.
The pan-African investment group Mara also received this month the support of the African Development Bank to develop a high-specification smartphone that will serve mainly African markets for the purpose of exporting to Europe.
By leveraging the growing mobile phone market in Africa, stakeholders hope to provide affordable data-based devices with specialized operating systems, access to popular social media applications, and longer battery life. battery, in short a phone made in Africa by Africans. for Africans.
Investing in mobile technology in Africa may be cautious, as the mobile subscriber penetration rate in the region is up 44 percent at the end of 2017, well below the global average of 66 percent.
In Africa, the mobile phone is also more than just a communication device: it is a mobile wallet, an essential tool for accessing expertise ranging from health and education to agricultural expertise and government services, and a transformative outlet recognized for facilitating poverty reduction.
As a result, various players are starting to manufacture phones to intensify the next wave of growth, which will be concentrated in rural markets and among younger demographic groups.
According to observers, part of this change, however, concerns import substitution economic policy in industrialization, which forces countries to exchange their imports with domestic production.
Added to this is the idea that by manufacturing their own mobile phones, African countries could not only move up the production value chain, but also help speed up the process of overcoming old technologies and models. commercial.
With the maturation of technological ecosystems and a growing interest in new technologies, the launch of new smart and versatile phones could revive manufacturing, create more jobs and attract foreign investors.
But as race intensifies between countries and companies, it's hard to know if locally-made phones can really gain popularity.
Yes, says Kamau Gachigi, who runs the Nairobi-based Gearbox makerspace. The caveat, he adds, is that governments need to focus less on the end product and more on building processes that can support and stimulate more products and ecosystems.
An example is the support of specialized prototyping facilities in the manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for electronics.
This, according to Gachigi, would create a high-volume, high-mix production process that could better meet the demands of emerging manufacturers, whether they make phones or tablets.
Another factor to consider is the approach of the question from a human point of view.
Gachigi, a 2018 innovator for Quartz Africa, says engineers sometimes do "smart" things "because they can, not because the market wants them." For example, with the ramp-up of the M-Pesa mobile money platform, a range of services such as the M-Kopa solar energy platform have developed across Kenya .
According to Gachigi, many of these systems were not commercially available. Their design and the creation of prototypes with local entrepreneurs have shown that there is still a niche that could be filled and exported.
By adapting mobile designs to specific contexts, for example, rural people, governments and businesses "would find that they would produce much more production, have more impact and engage more citizens and bring great value".
Business knowledge
But even then, developing a business case and creating a captive market could prove easier to say than to do. Governments, for example, may require their phones to be used or purchased by government officials.
But that would not remove the threat posed by dominant companies like Transsion, from Shenzhen in China, which ranks first in the telephony market in Africa.
Mark Kaigwa, founder of the Nairobi-based Nendo technology research firm, said any statement that ignored the existence of dominant manufacturers like Transsion, Samsung and Huawei would be a "romantic" idea.
To protect themselves, SICO, the Egyptian company behind the 4G-compatible Nile X smartphone, and MTN, have partnered with Chinese technology companies to make their phones.
Nor should nations seek to manufacture their own handsets to circumvent the hard work of putting in place the right infrastructure, Kaigwa said.
Creating the right regulatory environment to test new business models, encouraging the development of public-private partnerships, and giving deliberate attention, not just formal services, to research and development will remain crucial.
For Gachigi, an evangelist of policy makers, it is important for the various actors in Africa to pay particular attention to mobile telephony and want to become attractive exporters rather than net importers.
It is important, he says, that Africa participates in the fourth industrial revolution and does not sit back to see the opportunities offered by others.
"I do not accept the idea that if you do not have an advantage, do not try.
Quartz
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