President William Ruto has announced that by August, Kenya-made cheap smartphones will be available in the market.
Speaking on Friday, during the launch of the digitised government services, the president said the state is on course to ensure this is achieved in the next one month. The smartphones according to Ruto will retail at about Sh5,400.
The head of state said all digitised government services will be available on smartphones.
“We are well on course with our telcos in making sure that by August we will have smartphones affordably, working between the government of Kenya and our telcos, of 40 dollars which is like Sh5,400. You can now have a smartphone where all government services will be available,” Ruto said.
In November last year, Ruto now said that Kenya will be the biggest producer of Africa’s cheapest smartphones in the next year.
Speaking during a Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annual General meeting, Ruto said the government was in talks to see that this comes to pass.
“The real last mile in technology is the gadget and we are already working with our telecommunications sector so that we can have a smartphone that is going to be less than Sh5,000,” he said.
“A smartphone that can do everything that you want.”
Ruto said in the discussions with Telcos, they were also exploring the possibility of having the smartphones sold cheaply.
“Today the cheapest smartphone is Sh10,000 maybe Sh15,000. We want to see whether we can get to 30 or 40 Dollars and 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,” he said.
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa added that the smartphones will be 4G enabled and will be available in cash and on credit through lipa mdogo mdogo.
