TNS Global Market Research recently conducted a study that revealed that low cost Chinese smart phone options are currently putting pressure on more established phone manufacturers to lower their price points in countries like Nigeria. According to the study, “Nigerian mobile consumers are cost-conscious and will embrace low cost smartphones required for dynamic changes in the Internet landscape. Any mobile phone manufacturer that intends to retain its Nigerian customers and sustain its market share must be ready to offer lower cost options.”
This is just another example of how Africa is becoming the dumping ground for China's goods. Whether it be apparel or accessories, the African marketplace is becoming a China market. How can local goods compare or even get off the ground in the face of such competition? Having apparently ceded the market for manufactured electronic goods to the East and West the question will now be whether Africans will be able to get into the application space in their own countries as well as abroad.