Cooperation will be key if countries in the Eastern Africa sub-region are to tap opportunities created by the rising demand for smartphones, experts meeting in Kigali noted on Thursday.

The discussions at the 25th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE) revolved around the road to social and economic recovery in the region.

"The focus should be in identifying what we could offer to each other in the entire value chain to make us all win from the relationship…we must have a win-win partnership,” Eddy Sebera, Managing Director of MaraPhones Rwanda, told The New Times.

Andrea Vissol, an industrial policy analyst, added: "I think cooperation is at the heart of any success story and not just in the African context but in the global context. I believe it is essential that all countries speak to each other, work with each other, to tap all the opportunities that lie ahead.”

During a panel discussion on deepening regional value chains in Eastern Africa: the case of the smartphone value chain, Vissol noted that Africa’s cellphone production is driven by the African market.

Africa’s top three smartphone producers, he noted, represent 93.6 per cent of the continent’s total exports and 80 per cent of their international sales are made on the African market.

$15 billion of untapped demand in Africa

Africa’s cellphone market is dominated by Morocco, South Africa and Ethiopia.

"With production capacities all along the value chain there are opportunities for developing an integrated cellphone value chain in Africa,” Vissol told the meeting.

A product’s value chain involves the various steps of production which provide an extra brut margin or value addition and that lead up to the actual commercialisation of the final consumer good.

Vissol noted that there is $15 billion of untapped demand in Africa for the continent’s lowest national importers to reach the international consumption levels of Africa’s top five importers.

"The continental demand for smartphones remains largely untapped, 27 per cent of the continental imports are made by 50 countries. The remaining imports, 73 per cent, are made by South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Togo and Tunisia.”

Paula Ingabire, the Minister of ICT and Innovation, made a case for four critical areas she believes need to be focused on: research and development as well as design; development and engineering; manufacturing capability; and access to raw materials.

"There is just so much opportunity,” she said, adding: "The most important policy we are trying to put up, in Rwanda, is affordability.”

Dr. Jimson Olufuye, Founder and former Chair, Chief Executive Officer, AFICTA, noted that the continent has the potential but it needs to encourage its private sector to cooperate.

The Africa Information and Communication Technologies Alliance (AfICTA), is a private sector led alliance of ICT associations, multinational corporations, and organisations.

"Policy drives everything. But we have to cooperate. We need to make sure that we have a collaboration desk in all our countries,” he said.

"Research and Development is also critical to be able to sustain the process because the change in technology is so rapid.”