On Friday 21st April 2017, history was made in Nigeria as AfriOne Limited launched the country’s first smartphone assembling plant located in Nigeria’s financial hub, Lagos. This plant is geared towards the first indigenously produced smartphones and other consumer devices for sale in the Nigerian marketplace.
The plant was unveiled by the Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode who was represented by the Lagos State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Hon. Olufemi Odubiyi, along with the founder and CEO of the company, Sahir Berry, Roheen Berry (MD, Contec Global), Hemang Kapur (AfriOne co-founder and CTO) and Lekan Akinjide (CCO).
This is an unprecedented move and a technological breakthrough in the country as it gears towards the made in Nigeria dream where goods and services are produced locally.
The opening of AfriOne assembly plant launched with the unveiling of the Champion and Gravity range of smartphones but would still offer a wide range of products. These products include feature-rich and technologically loaded product lines from dual sim mobile phones to educational tablet PCs and even android smart watches.
The Lagos state government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AfriOne that stated that over 5,000 students currently studying in institutions of higher learning in Lagos state are to benefit from broad-base knowledge on how to deploy Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for personal and organisational empowerment. This partnership will help create direct and indirect jobs for the youth in Lagos state.
It is worthy to note that this assembling plant is not the only assembling plant in the country. It would be recalled that in 2014, RLG, a Ghanaian company also started assembling feature phones in Nigeria. They reportedly delivered 50,000 Nigerian-assembled feature phones in 2015. The RLG assembling plant known as “RLG & ADULAWO TECH CITY” is a public-private partnership between the Osun state government and RLG Communications. It features a training centre, research & development (R & D) lab, as well as a Green Technology – Biogas Plant that will provide cooking gas for the staff quarter and also the capacity to generate 3KVA electricity which can be used for lighting.
See photos of the plant below
