Africa targeted for new smartphone production project

In the world of smartphones, China has Huawei, Korea has Samsung, while the US has Apple. But dark horse Africa is now taking centre stage with the announcement of the Mara phone project that is touted to take the smartphone business by storm. Developed by Rwandan businessman and billionaire Ashish Thakkar, the Mara group at the Africa Investment Forum announced ambitious plans to develop manufacturing plants in Rwanda and in SA. During SA's recently held inaugural investment conference, Thakkar announced that his company would be investing R1.5bn in a South African venture over the next five years. My Broadband reports that Thakkar said there were further plans to develop the phone in plants across the continent’s five regions. ‘We all know the importance of high quality and affordable smartphones and the impact this can have on the continent. Quality smartphones mean we can truly enable financial inclusion, micro-lending and micro-insurance. This can translate into better education, digital healthcare and agriculture efficiency and improve commerce. If this is all going to be possible… we (need) quality and affordable smartphones. He added that ‘we have quality smartphones but they are not affordable and if it is affordable, it is not quality'.