Ethiopian mobile phone assembly plants flourish while other African companies close down
Tigrai Onlne - June 02, 2014
With companies closing mobile phone assembling plants throughout Africa due to stiff competition from China, Ethiopia has emerged as the only country in region to have a number of assembling plants in operation. What's more, they are exporting handsets to other markets in Africa.
Ethiopia has emerged as the only country in Africa to have a number of assembling plants in operation
Techno Mobile is among the companies in Ethiopia that is exporting handsets. Last year the company said it planned to set up assembling plants in Kenya and Nigeria in order to capture more African markets. Techno has introduced more than 12 different products, including smartphones.
Ethiopia is positioning itself to be an ICT hub in East and Southern African region outside South Africa and Kenya.
G-Tide, another Ethiopian mobile-phone maker, said it has so far finalized expansion plans and is set to start exporting its handsets. G-Tide is now conducting research with the Metal Engineering Industry Development Institute in Ethiopia to start manufacturing various mobile phone accessories for local and regional markets.
Africa is struggling to cope with the influx of counterfeit Chinese phones that have flooded the market, almost shutting even major players like Nokia out of the market.
Ethiopia's duty (tax) structure is more attractive than most countries in Africa," said Amos Kalunga, telecom analyst at Computer Society of Zambia.
"In addition to blocking the importation of counterfeit handsets, Ethiopia has been giving tax rebates (holidays) to such investors in order to make them viable and compete favorably with foreign manufactured handsets," Kalunga said.
Source: PC Advisor - http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/mobile-phone/3522503/ethiopias-mobile-assembling-plant-business-thrives/