First Zambian mobile-phone plant to open in August

The production of mobile-phone handsets by a Malaysian manufacturing company in Zambia will start in August, according to a company official.

M-mobile is investing more than US$3 million in setting up the first mobile-phone handset manufacturing plant in Zambia, said partner Mohammed Seedat.

The plant will assemble mobile phones for local and regional markets within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), which has 21 countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), which has 14 countries including South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

The plant will have the capacity to assemble between 50,000 and 70,000 mobile phones per month, Seedat said.

There is a need for local investors to partner with foreign investors to develop the telecom sector, said Zambian Minister of Commerce Trade and Industry Felix Mutati.