Tecno Telecom has inaugurated its second assembly plant in Ethiopia this year. The second plant launched by the Hong Kong based company has the capacity to assemble 200 thousand handsets a month in addition to the 60 thousand units being produced by the first plant.

Techno has introduced 13 brands on the Ethiopian market including a smart phone with the demand for the product increasing said Levi Girma, a partner of Tecno Telecom Ethiopia Ltd.

The company is able to sell all it produces because demand exceeds the available supply which is why Tecno implemented the second phase of the project he added.

The company employs 93 people including Chinese expatriates and expects the second to hire 315 more people when the second factory becomes fully operational and will reach 615 when the company launches its third phase.

The company has sold 18 million Tecno Mobile handsets in Africa in 2011 alone which makes its one of the top ten mobile suppliers on the market said Levi. Tecno mobile has three factories in China with the combined manufacturing capacity of 20 million mobile phone parts.

The number of mobile phone users in Ethiopia is expected to increase to 40 million from 18 million in the coming three years.

Tana Mobile assembling a Chinese brand, and Sami Mobile assembling Samsung handsets are two other mobile assemblers as well as Tecno mobile making up the three mobile assembly companies in Ethiopia currently.

Source: Capital