ZTE to Assemble Mobile Phones in Ethiopia

China's ZTE is to start assembling mobile phones in Ethiopia after signing a ETB50 million (US$5.2 million) deal with the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development of Amhara (TIRET). According to the agreement, TIRET and Janora Technology will build the assembly plant in Bahir Day City of the Amhara State within 14 months.

ZTE will be supplying the necessary machineries for the establishment of the plant and inputs to the new assembly plant.

The new assembly plant will have the capacity to produce between 3,000-4,500 mobile phones per day.

There is huge pent-up demand in the country for mobile phones, as was shown in the recent surge in the cost of handsets after the sole mobile operator, ETC released more capacity following a network upgrade. The sudden release of new SIM cards caused a run on handsets leading to shortages and price rises.

ZTE recently added 1.2 million GSM lines to the network capacity to cope with demand and a WCDMA overlay is also planed for some parts of the network. The company is currently deploying a 2.4 million line capacity CDMA network in the country.

The state owned monopoly ended Q1 '08 with an estimated 1.6 million subscribers, which according to figures from the Mobile World equates to a population penetration level of just 2%.

Posted to the site on 12th September 2008