Kenya set aside funds to help local start-ups in the mobile industry

Posted on : Wednesday , 14th November 2018

Kenya minister of information, communication and technology said that the government had set aside $10 million to help local start-ups in the mobile telephone software and hardware segments to grow.

The country’s imports of 50 million telephone handsets every two years, Which is challenging local firms to start making them locally.

Kenya has almost 45.5 million mobile phone subscribers who use a range of imported mobile devices from companies like Apple and Huawei.

But African nations like Kenya, who do not have a solid industrial base, have been trying to replace imports with local products in order to save their hard currency and remove pressure on their foreign exchange rates.

But as per Mr. Joe Mucheru, The ICT Minister, Kenya can manufacture the mobile handsets locally rather then importing the mobile phones from other countries which definitely increases the cost factor.

“Why can’t we leverage on the skills available locally to manufacture these handsets that are suitable for our markets?” he asked.

So in order to come up in reducing the expenditure related to import of mobile phones and support the domestic firms, he says that The government would work with firms that seek to participate in the manufacturing and assembling of phones, in order to drive down their costs.

This will definitely help the domestic manufactures of mobile phones to come up with their own sets using their best capable skills.

Source : https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke

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