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Sub-Saharan Africa will remain the fastest growing region for smartphones, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.6% and an additional 167 million subscribers over the period to 2025. This will take the total subscriber base to just over 600 million, representing around half the population.
MARA PHONES: SOUTH AFRICA’S FIRST
SMART PHONE MANUFACTURER, INVESTS R1,3 BILLION IN KZN
FACT
Mara Corporation, a Pan-African multi- sector business which operates in 26 countries across Africa, made good on the investment pledge it initially made to South African President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, at the South Africa Investment Conference back in October 2018. A year later, Mara Phones launched South Africa’s first fully- fledged smart phone manufacturing factory, valued at R1,3 billion. The 3 100 m2 high-tech smart phone manufacturing plant, located at Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone, was officially opened by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019.
Commenting on the Group’s decision to locate South Africa’s first smart phone manufacturing plant at Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone, business founder, Mr Ashish Thakkar, said: “We were looking to enhance our current operations and to further re-enforce our economic integration into the global platform. After considering various options in four African countries, including two potential sites in South Africa, it was our view that Durban’s Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone best afforded us that opportunity.”
Established in 1996, with its headquarters in Dubai, this multi-sector
business - active in the manufacturing, financial, agricultural, real estate and technology sectors - has a presence in 26 African countries, employing some 14 000 people. Its Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone-based enterprise, Mara Phones South Africa (Pty) Ltd, is set to employ almost 1 500 people by 2024, and has the manufacturing capacity to produce 4,3 million units annually.
The Mara Phones South Africa investment is poised to give effect to major benefits for the economy, including contributing towards an increase in the country’s export of value-added products, whilst providing a welcome boost in both direct and indirect job growth. The Durban plant has already created more than 200 jobs.
According to GFK Consulting, Ovum, GSMA and other sources, South Africa imported 4 million smart phones, collectively valued at R9,2 billion, in 2017. Some 3,4 million smart phones were shipped to the country in the second quarter of 2018, a 17,4% increase, year-on-year. In addition, 100 million mobile phone connections were made in South Africa during 2018, 85% of which were pre-paid, and it was forecast that the total number
of handset sales in South Africa would top 29 million in 2018, with 50 million smart phones in use.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Thakkar said: “Our Dube TradePort SEZ plant is making history, with the first smart phones to be manufactured in South Africa. This operation brings on-stream two affordable, high-tech devices, which will be made available through a number of distribution channels for, especially, first-time African smart phone users. With Dube TradePort Corporation’s development of Dube TradeZone 2, it is our intention to immediately expand our operations here, as well as moving to introduce other strategic partners, inclusive of both upstream and downstream opportunities.”
Dube TradePort Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Hamish Erskine, commented: “We are exceptionally pleased that a globally- acknowledged and multi-disciplined investment group, the calibre of the acclaimed Mara Group, has selected Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone for its smart phone production. The group’s substantial investment here is indicative of the confidence investors are showing in South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal and Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone.”
Since entering the South African market, an increasing number of private sector partnerships are underway, with Pick ‘n Pay becoming the first major retail chain to stock the locally manufactured Mara phones. The Mara X smart phone model is currently available in selected Pick ‘n Pay stores country-wide. Mara Phones South Africa is reported to have also concluded lucrative partnership deals with Nedbank and Vodacom.
Mara Phones South Africa plans to export its devices to Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.
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