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FORTUNE.COM // JANUARY 2020
AFRICA GETS ITS
TECH BUZZ ON
TECH
WHEN A FACTORY in Rwanda’s capital of
Kigali debuted Africa’s first made-in-
Africa mobile phones in October, their
provenance wasn’t the only surprise: The
devices also came loaded with higher-end
features like fingerprint sensors for unlocking
the screen that many rival phones used across
the continent lack. It wasn’t just a push for
African tech but also for African quality.
The factory, owned by Rwandan company
Mara Group, was a major milestone for Kigali,
which has spent a generation emerging from
the ashes of the nation’s genocide in 1994 by
refashioning itself as a tech hub. Already, the
city is home to several tech incubators, a Car-
negie Mellon University engineering campus,
and local startups that produce such items as
drones and cashless payment systems.
“It boils down to our turbulent past, being
left with nothing, and using ashes as a con-
Once bypassed by the tech boom, cities like Kigali,
Rwanda, are now home to a growing number of startups
and increasing investment. By Richard Morgan
Mara Group recently started producing the first
smartphones made entirely in Africa.
COURTESY OF M
ARA PHONES
