August 7, 2019 was the day Rwanda made history and became the first country in Africa to produce smartphones.
“Rwandans are already using smartphones but we want to enable many more. The introduction of Mara phones will put smartphones ownership within reach of more Rwandans,” President Paul Kagame was quoted as saying at The Mara Phone factory in Kigali where he commissioned Mara’s production capacity.
According to Ashish Thakkar, founder of Mara Group and member of President Paul Kagame’s Presidential Advisory Council, Mara is expected to produce at least 1,200 smartphones daily for sale in Rwanda and abroad.
Thakkar has noted the firm is already in talks with regional countries including Kenya, DR Congo and Angola to export and sell the Rwanda-made smartphones. He also hinted that the company has plans to expand elsewhere on the continent and open a factory in South Africa.
Quick Facts About Maraphone
- The Mara Z is a dual sim phone with a storage capacity of 32GB and memory of 3GB, while the Mara X is also a dual sim with 16GB space and 1GB memory. Both models are pre-installed with Google’s Android operating system.
- Since Mara’s official launch, its smartphone sales has increased with at least 30 handsets sold per day between Tuesday and the time of going to press.
- In the past three months, the shop has sold about 130 phones.
- Established at a cost of over $50 million by the Bank of Kigali, the factory directly employs 200 workers — 90 per cent of whom are Rwandan and 60 per cent female — to work in technology development, production and the assembly lines. The local and foreign engineers, currently work one shift a day.
“Producing smartphones takes about 1,000 individual components in a complex manufacturing operation requiring significant technical skill and expertise,” Mr Thakkar told the East African
‘’I want to emphasise that this is a manufacturing facility and not an assembling plant,’’ he added.
Key Facts About Africa’s Smartphone Market
- According to latest figures announced by International Data Corporation (IDC), the Africa mobile phone market declined 1.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in Q2 2019.
- While Nigeria remained Africa’s largest smartphone market in Q2 2019, followed by South Africa and Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa saw smartphone shipments increase 3.6% and 0.2%, respectively, while Egypt saw 18.0% QoQ growth after the market shrunk considerably in Q1 2019 due to the introduction of import registration and other import regulations.
- China’s Transsion (makers of Tecno, Infinix, and Itel brands), Samsung, and Huawei were the continent’s smartphone market’s leaders in shipment terms in Q2 2019, with respective market shares of 37.4%, 27.4%, and 8.7%.
- However, Samsung had the highest share by dollar value at 40.3%, followed by Transsion (21.9%) and Huawei (12.2%).
- Samsung’s dominant revenue position in the market is sustained through timely product launches across all African markets, particularly in relation to its A-Series devices, which are shipped in large volumes.
- Shipments of 4G-enabled smartphones increased by 6.6% QoQ in Q2 2019 to account for 70.8% of the total smartphone market, spurred by the declining prices of LTE devices.
- IDC forecasts that 4G-enabled phones will constitute 74.4% of the African smartphone market by the end of 2020, with 5G phones tipped to garner a 0.4% share.
- Smartphone penetration in Rwanda currently stands at around 15% with the most basic Tecno and Samsung models sold at $40 and $70 respectively.
- There are 490,000 Facebook users in December 2017, 3.8% penetration rate.
Why Mara Is The First African Smartphone Maker
According to a source, Maraphones made at the plant are partially manufactured and partially assembled in Rwanda.
Most of the components are imported from China and Turkey, the source recently told disclosed to The East African, while the Mara factory in Kigali only manufacturers the motherboards, which drive the phone operating system.
“They make the motherboards in Rwanda using about 1,000 raw materials while the rest of the handset is assembled using imported parts,” the source said.
The factory is divided into different sections for technology development, production and assembly lines.
The factory, so far, makes two phone models the Mara X and Mara Z retailing for $130 and $190 respectively. They are likened to the Nile X phones — an African brand phone made in Egypt with the help of China since 2017.
Relying On More Retail Centers To Penetrate Africa’s Smartphone Market
Although Mara phones have been on sale since early this year at the Kigali Business Centre, the factory’s management says it is set to open 10 more retail centres in Kigali and across the country. This is hopefully a strategy it hopes to rely to enter, first enter the Rwandan market. Rwanda is roughly a country of over 12 million people, with
The Mara Z model is currently the preferred model and can be purchased in instalments over two years, a move aimed at making them affordable and give them a competitive edge over foreign models.
The retailer says they are able to supply orders of more than 100 phones at a go.
“A smartphone is no longer a luxury but a necessary component of daily life. Mara Phones shares the vision for our development and the introduction of its phones will put smartphone ownership within reach of more Rwandans,” President Kagame said during the factory launch.
“I bought the Mara Z because of its large storage capacity and because it is made in Rwanda. I own a Tecno but the Mara looks better designed and offers a warranty of 13 months,” said Aisha Uwitonze, a businesswoman, in response to our queries on user experience of the phones.
“A phone with a 1GB memory will likely begin to hang after downloading a few applications or after using it for some time. For that price, I could still buy a Tecno,” said Fred Hategekimana who opted not to buy the Mara X.
Tecno and Infinix phones retail within the same price range as the Mara phones.
Stepping Up More On Mobile Subscriptions Under The Available Legal Regime In Rwanda
Mobile phone subscriptions in Rwanda hit about 10 million last year according to the Rwanda Utilities and Regulations Authority.
Internet subscriptions also increased from 4.4 million users to 5.4 million, an increase of about 25 per cent, and the regulator attributed the increase to the affordability of smartphones as well as flexible pricing of Internet bundles.
The Mara phones manufactured in Kigali qualify for a corporate income tax holiday of up to seven years, which the government offers under its investment promotion code to investments worth at least $50 million in the manufacturing sector.
Bottom Line
It is safe to say that once a phone making factory produces a phone’s motherboard, it produces almost the whole phone. This is what Africa’s first smartphone maker is looking to achieve, even though it still sources other components from other countries. Barely few weeks after its formal launch and with over 130 smartphones already sold, Mara is hoping to find market in Kenya, Angola and DR Congo soon. How soon the company joins the global over 1.56 billion smartphones market worldwide, would determine how fast it scales.
But if Mara is coming on board, it also has to challenge all the existing industry giants, innovate on time, and offer affordable smartphones in a continent where smartphone penetration is till low otherwise it may quickly become another story of a failed African brand even before it gets fully started.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world