The country’s first ICT Manufacturing and assembling factory is set to export 18,000 phones to Morroco. These include Ugandan made smartphones and feature phones. The factory produces 2,500 phones per day which is enough to supply Uganda and create a surplus for export.
The first batch was flagged off by the National Information Technology Authority’s Executive director Mr. Sakwa and Investment state minister Hon Evelyn Anite.
Launched by the President of Uganda in November 2019, the new smartphone plant came into force after the government signed an agreement with Chinese owned SIMI technologies in July earlier in the year to promote the manufacturing of ICT electronics in Uganda.
The assembly plant of the SIMI S300 phones promised to run three production lines at full capacity; each line with daily production of 2,000 feature phones, 1,500 smartphones, 800 laptops, 2,000 chargers, 4,000 USB cables, and 4,000 sets of earphones and directly employing more than 400 staff.
Each SIMI S300 costs only UGX 20,000 ($5.24) but this price point should not be surprising given the fact that its a feature phone. The aim of the government is to reduce the importation of such devices. Whether this will pan out to be a great start for Uganda’s smartphone industry is yet to be seen.
