10 December 2021

Cell phone operator Africell and US IT device manufacturer Industry Five launched the pilot phase of the former’s proprietary phone assembly project (Afriphone) in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The operation will be conducted in the specialised factory built by Industry Five in the capital Kinshasa. If the devices meet the strict performance and quality standards, they will be made available to the population currently representing a market of over 90 million people.

Milad Khairallah, chief executive officer (CEO) of Africell DRC, explained that it aims to “encourage the rooting in the DRC of a critical mass of skills and functions necessary for the production of mobile technologies”. He emphasised that “by assembling consumer mobile technology here in the DRC, we hope to boost the local supply chain, mitigate the supply risks inherent in a highly globalized industry, and further redirect the benefits of the mobile boom to the DRC economy”.

Africell DRC’s investment in the local production of its proprietary phones is part of the strategy to strengthen its presence and cost management undertaken by the American group since the beginning of the year in its various markets.

It comes a few weeks after the visit of Ijad Dalloul, the founder and CEO of Africell Group, to Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge, the prime minister of DRC, to present the company’s investment projects in the country.

More than 30,000 Afriphones produced by Industry Five for Africell DRC will be ready by February 2022. Production can be scaled up to half a million Afriphones over the next twelve months. The production process can also be decentralised to sites in Lubumbashi, Goma or Bandundu.