Nedbank has partnered with Mara Phones to make thousands of its South African-made Android smartphones available to the bank’s clients.
Mara Phones recently launched the first African-based smartphone-manufacturing factory in Kigali. President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the second factory in Durban on 17 October 2019. Each factory has a capacity to produce a few million smartphones units per year.
“We are exceptionally pleased that Nedbank has come on board to partner with Mara Phones, thereby enabling South Africans an opportunity to procure and acquire high quality and affordable smartphones,” says Ahuti Chug, chair of Mara Phones.
“Our aim is to increase smartphone penetration on the continent by providing problem solving, tailored solutions to for our customers and partners.
“This partnership strengthens our vision to change the narrative by demonstrating that Africans can produce high quality tech products,” he adds.
“Mara Phones is committed to enhancing and enriching the lives of the people of Africa by making smartphones more affordable to all. The importance of quality and affordable smartphones cannot be overstated as they enable connectivity and efficiency.
“It is part of Mara Phones vision and strategy to partner with financial institutions to offer solutions to consumers, truly made-in-Africa solutions.”
Ciko Thomas, group managing executive for Nedbank Retail and Business Banking, says the partnership resulted from Nedbank’s recognition of the close alignment of the Mara Phones philosophy with Nedbank’s purpose to use its financial expertise to do good.
“Like Nedbank, Mara Phones is committed to leveraging technology to enable financial inclusion and enhanced education, healthcare and agriculture outcomes in South Africa and across Africa,” Thomas explains. “Through this transaction, the ability of both organisations to deliver on this vision will be significantly enhanced.”
The full details of Nedbank’s Mara Phones offer are still under wraps. However, Thomas says the Nedbank offer will be a pre-packaged, high-value proposition, with the smartphones preloaded with the Nedbank Money App, and delivered via flexible finance options that make it easy for clients to pay for their already very affordable Mara Phones devices.
He adds that the Nedbank offer is unlikely to be network-specific. “We believe our clients should be able to use the mobile network of their own choosing, so we will be offering some, or all, of our Nedbank-bundled, dual-SIM Mara Phones devices without SIM cards, allowing the new phone owners to use prepaid voice and data packages from any cellular service provider.”