Uganda’s Minister of Finance, Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite has announced that the East African country has officially begun exporting mobile phones made locally.
Making the announcement on Saturday, Ms Anite said the first batch of phones made by a Chinese-owned firm in the country have been sent to China.
The SIMI phones are also being sold in Uganda.
“I had the pleasure of flagging off the first batch of Ugandan made mobile phones manufactured by Uganda’s first phone manufacturing plant (SIMI Technologies) to Morocco” Anite wrote in a tweet.
She described the maiden phone export to China as “a step towards reducing Uganda’s import bill on ICT products and boosting export earnings”.
SIMI Technologies, the firm behind the mobile phones currently employs some 400 young Ugandans and has been praised for contributing meaningfully to the country’s economic growth.
According to Anite, the company has been instrumental in transferring ICT knowledge and skills to youths and render them employable.
She said SIMI Technologies has also manufactured protective personal hygiene gears including temperature guns as its contribution to fighting the coronavirus pandemic in Uganda.
WN/as/APA