Technologically, Rwanda is becoming a force to reckon with on the African continent. This is with respect to technology even after years of turmoil caused by war and spoilage.
In 2018, the Nigerian Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu urged Transsion Holdings — the group behind TECNO, Inifinx and itel brands — to work on establishing a smartphone factory in Nigeria and since then no one has heard anything about that topic.
However, as of 2018 plans have already been solidified. The Founder of Mara Group, Ashish Thakkar is looking to develop a smartphone factory in Rwanda and South Africa by April 2019. Nigerian authorities often make the claim that these companies should consider Nigeria because of its large population. Apparently, population is not the basis for setting up a manufacturing plant in any country. Companies focus on the total addressable market for their products instead of the total population. The population of Rwanda is 12.7 million compared to Nigeria’s 199.1 million. But it is beginning to see more technology factories than Nigeria.
Are Nigeria’s population figures unrelated to its attractiveness for technology projects?
In early 2018, Gloo founder, Olumide Olusanya, revealed plans to shut down the eCommerce operations and affirmed that the total addressable market (TAM) for eCommerce in the country is low. In agreement with Olumide’s claims, Newzoo states that the African country with the highest smartphone penetration was Morocco with 37.9%. Nigeria, with 13% penetration, took the 9th spot behind South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. AfriOne already runs a smartphone assembly plant in Lagos, Nigeria. So even if Transsion Holdings eventually considers Nigeria for a plant, it won’t be the first.
Nigeria accounts for 15% percent of Africa’s population. But there’s still the question around the first choice destination for technology in Africa. Last year, Google announced that it will establish an Artificial Intelligence lab in Ghana. And just less than a week, Nigeria’s CcHUB launched the continent’s first design hub in Rwanda. These all point to the possibility that other African countries are more bankable for technology ventures than Nigeria.
In conclusion, Nigeria needs to step up technological first. When this is done, more projects will come in with ease.
