Chinese firm A-Link Technologies has established a $0.5 million mobile phone handset  assembling plant in Rwanda, making the country the first in the East African region to host one.

The plant is producing 200 mobile phones a day, but its president Edward Yin said it has a capacity to assemble about 600 of the five different kinds of Rwandan branded mobile phones. The affordable phones are assembled from imported materials.

The firm plans to invest a further $2 million by the end of the year, and possibly start a radio assembling plant as well.

Demand for low-cost mobile phones is huge in the country,  and Nokia and Motorola phones are priced as low as $40 while the cheapest, the MTN branded ZTE phone goes for $25.