Kenya's first smartphone assembly plant is running at full capacity, with 1.5 million devices produced since its opening

East Africa Device Assembly Kenya Limited (EADAK), the country’s first smartphone assembly plant, has produced 1.5 million devices approximately eight months after its commissioning. This was revealed by Eliud Owalo, Minister of ICT and the Digital Economy, on Saturday 6 July, in a publication on X reviewing the achievements of his ministerial department.

According to the Minister, the smartphones are available from branches of telecoms operators Safaricom and Jamii Telkom at a unit price of 7,500 Kenyan shillings ($58.1). To date, 579,000 handsets have been sold, we learn.

Kenyan President William Ruto first announced plans for local smartphone production in November 2022. An assembly plant was finally commissioned on 30 November 2023. The result of a collaboration between Safaricom, Jamii and the Chinese company Shenzhen TeleOne Technology, its production capacity was initially estimated at between 1.2 million and 1.4 million.

The local production of smartphones in Kenya should facilitate the adoption of these devices in a context of accelerated digital transformation. According to the latest data from the Communications Authority (CA), 34.5 million of the 65.7 million mobile phones connected to telecoms operators’ networks are smartphones. The country also has 68 million active subscribers and 51.3 million mobile Internet subscribers.