Jumia aims to increase its sales of mobile phones to 80,000 devices during its "Mobile Week" discounts, up from 30,000 during last year's week, according to Karim Ahmed, the company's e-marketing director. Ahmed said the company expects 10m website visits during the week, where it is offering discounts in partnership with Samsung, Xiaomi, Sico, and Soda. Meanwhile, Jumia revealed that Xiaomi Redmi 5A marked great success during the first minutes of introducing it in a flash sale on the first day of Mobile Week, which extends from 18 to 25 March. Phone sales reached over 15,000 units in the first two hours. GfK, a market research institution, expects an increase in smartphone sales in Egypt by 2% this year compared to 2017, when global mobile sales reached 1.5bn, according to Karim Masara, GfK business manager. During a press conference on Thursday, Masara said that mobile phone sales are expected to grow strongly in the Middle East and North Africa region this year. "The expected increase in sales is estimated at 6%. Egypt accounts for about 10% of smartphone sales in the Middle East and North Africa," he added. Moreover, Masara noted that the Egyptian mobile market saw sales of about 18m devices last year, as per GfK research, at a value of around EGP 35bn. He pointed out that 60% of the growth in revenues is attributed to currency exchange rate differentials. Egypt floated the value of its national currency in November 2016. The value of the dollar rate appreciated against the pound to over EGP 17. The smartphone market is likely to grow strongly in Egypt in 2018, where two of every three phones sold are smartphones. In addition, phones tagged under EGP 2,000 denominate the sales, accounting for 50% of total sales. Samsung holds the largest share of smartphone sales in Egypt at 42%, followed by Huawei with a 13% market share, then Apple with 8%.
