AG Mobile – a South African mobile technology brand headquartered in Johannesburg has launched in Nigeria. In 2007, it launched its own brand of cell phones in South Africa thereby making it the first indigenous brand to do so. Nigeria is the ninth country after Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe where AG mobile phones and tablets are currently available. Nigeria is however the first nation where they’ve been launched independently of a retail partner.
AG Mobile CEO Anthony Goodman while speaking about the launch said “While our initial marketing roll-out covers Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt and Kano, our reach is national. Our Android, feature-rich devices are available online via Jumia, from MTN and Ringo outlets, as well as independent dealers across the country.”
He also added that his company would be creating its own dedicated outlets and country repair centres shortly. At such outlets customers will have the opportunity to experiment with devices before they purchase them and of course be able to have their devices repaired at an in-country repair centre.
The AG Mobile Nigeria range launched include AG Boost and AG Zoom – which run on the Android 4.4 KitKat OS and the AG Style and AG Ghost – which run on the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. All of these devices come preloaded with WeChat, BBM, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Google Play Store.
The recommended retail prices for the devices are:
AG Zoom: N9,000
AG Boost: 10,400
AG Style: N19,200
AG Ghost: 45,500
Anthony Goodman also added that the launch of AG Mobile Nigeria forms part of the brand’s expansion strategy to provide more Africans with affordable, quality products while investing in markets that offer mutually beneficial opportunities. “As a proudly African brand we believe that we will bring great value to Nigeria. We’ve started by building relationships with well-respected brands such as MTN, Etisalat, Ringo and Jumia, creating employment opportunities, and supporting the networks’ objectives to advance Nigeria’s connectivity from 2G to 3G,” he said.
