President William Ruto has announced Kenya’s plans to manufacture Africa’s most affordable smartphone within a year that will retail at shillings five thousand.
The president said the move coincides with the government’s plan of leveraging on technology to make it efficient and effective.
President Ruto speaking today at a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) roundtable said that having a cheap smartphone will ensure that all Kenyans can access digital platforms for business and accessing government services which is in line with the primary agendas of the Kenya Kwanza government and he has already set in motion talks with the telecommunication sectors on manufacturing cheap phones.
“Today the cheapest smartphone is between sh10,000 and sh15,000, we want to see. I want to promise the country that in the next 8 to 12 months we will have the cheapest smartphone in Africa, manufactured in Kenya,” said President Ruto.
The president went on to add that he intends to have government services digitised to grant citizens the advantage of seeking services remotely.
“We have about 15 per cent of government services in the digital platform, and we want to ensure that between six and 12 months we will have moved 90 per cent of government services to the digital platform,” he added.
The president said this will see Kenya boast of the cheapest smartphones in Africa and more Kenyans will have access to smartphones.
“Today, the cheapest smartphone is about Sh 10,000 to Sh 15,000. We want to see whether we can get it to $30 or $40 (Sh 3,000 – Sh 5,000).” He noted
Smartphone prices have shot up in July 2022, after the government imposed a ten percent import tax on mobile phones.
