IKU to invest $15 million in Egypt

CAIRO – 19 April 2018: IKU Company chose Egypt to be a center for manufacturing the company’s mobile phones with an initial investment of $15 million (LE 265.11 million), according to the company’s press release.

The press release clarified that this step came to meet the Egyptians and the surrounding markets’ needs.

General Manager of IKU Sherif Akef said that the company is studying to construct its factory in one of Egypt’s technological areas in Borg al-Arab or Assiut.

Akef expected the production to start in 2019 with a productive capacity of 1.8 million devices per year, clarifying that the local components will represent 40 percent in the devices.

He added that the devices in the Egyptian unit will be distributed in the markets of Egypt, North Africa and the Gulf.

IKU has a mobile development administration in the United Arab Emirates and is looking forward to have a unit in Egypt, Akef added.

For his part, General Manager of IKU-Egypt Ahmed el-Wakeel said that Egypt is considered to be one of the most important markets in the region as around 20 million mobile devices, worth more than $2 billion, enter the Egyptian market annually, according to international statistic-bodies.

Wakeel clarified that these statistics were behind the company’s decision to invest in Egypt to benefit from this huge market.

IKU entered the Egyptian market in 2017. It allocates 1 percent of smart phones market and about 10 percent of the traditional mobile market.

It provides feature phones, smart phones, tablets and accessories in more than seven countries and regions.

This investment is considered to be the second in the Egyptian mobile phone market after the issuance of the first Egyptian- manufactured smartphone "SICO" in February.

E-SICO mobile phones represent the first local brand in the industry as the percentage of local components is 45 percent; the foreign components in the device are provided through a partnership with China, with an investment of LE 400 million.

The smartphone will also be distributed regionally in the African and Middle Eastern markets, with a regional guarantee.

E-SICO is expected to be priced at an average of LE 2,000 ($112.78).

SICO Technology is planning to acquire 5 percent of Egypt’s mobile phones market share in the first year of selling.

The company’s technical centers will be in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Assiut, Sharkia and Luxor governorates.

Mobile phones subscription in Egypt recorded 110 percent in January 2017, with 98.2 million users, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Meanwhile, mobile internet users registered 26.16 million subscriptions in the same month.