Sico Is Looking To Expand Into The African Electronics Market
Sico is looking to expand into the African electronics market
While attempting to establish itself as the primary contract builder of electronics for export to the rest of Africa, Sico Technology, Egypt's first smartphone manufacturer, will assemble handsets for other companies.
Sico Technology currently sells a brand of phone called Nile X, which can be purchased for as little as $80. Now, the company is producing smartphones for Indian and Chinese companies, and it plans to expand its operations to include the production of electronic items such as televisions, satellite receiver boxes, and electronic payment devices (POS).
Egyptian-based SICO was established in 2003 and has its headquarters in Cairo. Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology owns a 20 percent stake in the company, which aims to produce more than 2 million devices of various brands next year, an increase from the current production rate of 1.5 million devices.
In a statement, the Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Salem, stated that technology centers must be distributed throughout the world to ensure their effectiveness. Having one that is not located in Asia will be extremely beneficial to Africa.
Infinix, a Hong Kong-based smartphone company, signed a cooperation agreement with SICO last year, making it the first global smartphone manufacturer to establish production lines for its products in Egypt, according to the company.
Mobile phone manufacturing in Africa
In 2017, AfriOne, the first Nigerian phone manufacturing company based in Lagos, launched its products.
Despite the fact that the products have excellent specifications and are reasonably priced, they cannot be said to have penetrated the smartphone market because they are competing with established players such as Tecno, Infinix, and other well-established brands.
Foreign products are generally preferred over home-made products by the general public. This is as a result of the poor quality of materials used in such products. This is not meant to be a criticism of local businesses; rather, people prefer to buy what they are familiar with rather than something new, even if it is better.
Nigeria announced plans to unveil a phone that would be made entirely in the country in February 2020, but the device was not delivered until June 2021. Manufacturing of the ITF Mobile is being carried out by the Electrical/Electronic Technology Department of the Industrial Training Fund's (ITF) Model Skills Training Centre, with components sourced from within the country.
During the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the availability and use of mobile telephony in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile phones have progressed from being merely devices for receiving calls and sending texts to becoming the focal point of our lives. Smartphones provide access to real-time information, and they are also used to conduct business transactions in some cases.
Statista Data on smartphone users in Nigeria
According to data obtained from Statista, the current number of smartphone users in Nigeria ranges between 25 million and approximately 40 million, with the number expected to triple by 2025.
Approximately 495 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will have subscribed to mobile services by the end of 2020, accounting for 46 percent of the region's population – an increase of nearly 20 million from the previous year.
Transactions on mobile money platforms are expected to reach $490 billion by 2020, demonstrating how much people rely on their smartphones to conduct their business.
In response to the economic crunch brought on by the pandemic and inflation, smartphone prices have risen to levels that were previously unaffordable. What was previously affordable is now out of reach. According to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), the average entry-level, internet-enabled handset costs more than 120 percent of the monthly earnings of the region's poorest 20 percent.
The long-term impact of the presence of an African phone manufacturing plant such as SICO is still up in the air. It is hoped that this will have an impact on the accessibility of smartphones by making them even more available.
