By Andualem Sisay | AfricaNews

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - Nokia said Ethiopian market is strategic and promising to the company. "As Ethiopia is one of the strategies and promising market of Nokia, we will continue to enhance our customer service and a 12 month warranty that is all part of Nokia's strategy," said Gerard Brandjes, Nokia's General Manager for East Africa.

Brandjes indicated that his company is planning to negotiate with Ethiopian authorities on tax issues in order to connect as many people as possible with affordable prices. He was speaking to journalists Thursday at the Sheraton Addis in Ethiopia during the launching of three new products of Nokia, which are especially designed to meet the needs of African market.

Nokia 5000 with 1.3 mega pixel camera, Nokia 1680 Classic and Nokia 7070 Prism are the three products that the company introduced to Ethiopian market with e-mail, video and radio service features. Before subsidies and taxes currently the company is selling Nokia 5000 model for $95, Nokia 1680 Classic for $65 and Nokia 7070 Prism for $60.

Mentioning the zero tax rate of Ghana on mobile phones as a good indicator of the correlation between mobile connectivity level and business growth, Brandjes hopes that the fact that the more people connected through mobile phones, the more people get the opportunity to do business or enhance and grow their existing business will also applies in the case of Ethiopia.

Nokia, which recently increased the number of its products distribution agent in Ethiopia from one to two, is the only company to introduce mobile phone with national language of Ethiopia- Amharic, a year ago. Currently, the company is selling nine Amharic Nokia mobile phone models.

With the industry’s largest portfolio of mobile phones and support for more than 80 languages, more than one billion people worldwide currently use a Nokia device. Brandjes declined to reveal the exact share of Nokia mobile apparatus users in Ethiopia. He indicated that the majority of Ethiopians prefer Nokia mobiles over other brands because Nokia is the pioneer to introduce apparatuses with Amharic language, integrated video camera and flash light features.

Currently there are a total of around two million people in Ethiopia connected through mobile phones. But, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation, which is the government monopoly telecommunication, is working on its plan of adding six million new mobile users within one year.