Mara Phones, South Africa’s manufacturer of smartphones, has appointed Sylvester Taku CA (SA) to the position of Managing Director with immediate effect. Mr Taku has been doing business in Africa for over 20 years and has made accelerating growth through smart, well-considered moves his signature style.

He has been the Head of Growth at Mara Phones since 2019 and led the opening of the first bricks-and-mortar Mara Experience Store in Maponya Mall, Soweto, exactly a year after Mara Phones unveiled the country’s first smartphone manufacturing facility in KZN.  This retail store enables customers to experience the look and feel of state-of-the-art Mara Phones devices while being able to interact with technical specialists in their own community.

Congratulating the strategist and corporate financier with a penchant for risk management and business development; Mara Phones CEO Ashish J. Thakkar said: “Sylvester is bold and dependable with an amazing ability to spot the next opportunity. He will continue to do exceptionally well at Mara Phones as we grow together and make a huge positive social impact, bring fantastic shareholder returns and create real value for customers.”

Mr Taku’s, a Chartered Accountant who also holds an MBA from the UCT Graduate School of Business has a strong strategic and consulting background which saw him complete successful tenures at industry leaders Coopers & Lybrant, PWC, Deloitte and EY (Ernst & Young) where he, amongst other achievements, boosted the profitability of the EY MTN account eight-fold.

According to Mr Taku: “It is a privilege to lead the South African operations of the continent’s flagship smartphone brand; Mara Phones. Every South African can be proud that world-class smartphones roll out of our South African factory every day and my focus going forward will be on growth in new markets and forging new partnerships while solidifying the brand where we’re currently achieving.”

Mara Phones, a subsidiary of Mara Corporation, is a proudly African brand and company that has been working on the continent for over two and a half decades. The company integrates technology to enable business growth and prosperity with innovative products and services delivered in a localised manner.

Focusing on smartphone growth in Africa while enabling access to transformational tools and services, Mara Phones has emerged as a digital enabler for financial inclusion, agricultural efficiencies, business tools and services, digital health and education. Mara Phones is the first truly African-made smartphone provided at highly affordable prices and excellent quality standards.