Kenyan billionaire Joshua Chepkwony's EADAK factory assembles 700,000 smartphones as Kenya races toward 4G and 5G

East Africa Device Assembly Kenya, the joint venture co-founded by Kenyan billionaire Joshua Chepkwony's Jamii Telecommunications alongside Safaricom and Chinese manufacturing partner TeleOne, has assembled 700,000 locally manufactured digital devices in the financial year ending March 2026, marking a significant milestone in Kenya's push to build a domestic smartphone manufacturing base and accelerate nationwide 4G and 5G adoption.

EADAK's production numbers were disclosed through Vodacom Group, Safaricom's parent company, which highlighted the facility's expanding role in the operator's long-term strategy to transition users from legacy 2G and 3G networks to higher-capacity 4G infrastructure and emerging 5G ecosystems. With an annual production capacity of 3 million units, the facility is assembling 4G-enabled smartphones retailing at as little as KSh 7,499 ($57.7), targeting low-income households that have historically been excluded from smartphone ownership by cost barriers.

Chepkwony, who chairs EADAK, said the milestone reflects what is possible when government policy and private sector partnership align around a shared digital inclusion agenda. "This assembly plant will support government's agenda to enhance digital inclusion in the country. We have been able to achieve affordability through a collaborative approach that comprises industry partnership and favourable government policies," he said.

The facility has diversified beyond standard consumer smartphones to include educational tablets and biometric Know Your Customer verification devices used by financial services field agents, positioning it at the intersection of Kenya's digital education and financial inclusion priorities. Asset financing models deployed through Safaricom-linked plans allow customers to acquire devices and repay in installments as low as KSh 20 ($0.15) per day over nine months, lowering entry barriers for first-time smartphone users across rural and urban low-income communities.

For Chepkwony, EADAK represents the most ambitious expression yet of the infrastructure-building philosophy that has defined his business career. He founded Jamii Telecommunications, which operates under the Faiba brand, in 2016 after paying KSh 5 billion ($38.5 million) to secure an operating license and become one of Kenya's most consequential telecommunications innovators. Faiba was the first company in Kenya to deploy a 700MHz mobile network, the first to offer 100 percent free on-net voice services for life, and the first to deliver 1 gigabit-per-second broadband capacity to homes and businesses. JTL also holds a 5 percent ownership stake in the TEAMS undersea fiber optic cable system connecting Kenya to international internet infrastructure.

Chepkwony began building his fortune long before Faiba. He founded Kass Media Group in 2005, launching Kass FM and Kass TV to serve the Kalenjin-speaking communities of Kenya's Rift Valley in their native language, arguing that people understand and engage more deeply with information delivered in the language of their upbringing. He also operates Jamii Milling Company, a KSh 1 billion ($7.7 million) maize and wheat flour processing plant launched in 2015 in Uasin Gishu County, and chairs Sergoit Holdings, the company developing a KSh 40 billion ($308 million) golf and wildlife resort on 3,100 acres on the outskirts of Eldoret, incorporating 2,000 luxury villas, three 18-hole championship golf courses, a five-star hotel, a private hospital, a shopping mall and an airstrip. He is described by those who know him as reclusive and understated, qualities unusual in a man whose portfolio touches telecommunications, media, agriculture, real estate and now device manufacturing simultaneously.

EADAK now competes in a Kenyan device financing and manufacturing ecosystem that includes M-KOPA, which has reportedly assembled more than 3.2 million devices through its own production and financing operations. The competitive pressure is sharpening EADAK's focus on affordability and volume, and Chepkwony's Faiba network, as a co-founder of the joint venture, gives EADAK a direct route to market through an operator with nationwide infrastructure already in place.

Kenya's government has made digital inclusion a central plank of its economic transformation agenda, with device affordability and network modernisation identified as the two most critical barriers to closing the country's digital divide. With 4G penetration still below its potential in rural Kenya and 5G rollout accelerating in urban centres, EADAK's 700,000-unit milestone positions it as a meaningful contributor to a national priority at a moment when the infrastructure and the political will to execute on it are both finally in place.