Astro Mobile nominated for African Award for Entrepreneurship

Astro Mobile, a local mobile phone distributor and technology brand has made it into the African Leadership Network (ALN) top entrepreneurial businesses nominees list for the Outstanding Mature Business Award at the 2015 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (AAE).

Astro Mobile joins two other nominees TA Telecom, a mobile services and data analytics company from Egypt and mi-Fone another mobile phone distributor from Zambia founded by former Motorola Director of Sales in Africa, Alpesh Patel.

The AAE is a yearly award series that was started by the Legatum Group in 2007 to,

recognize business leaders who demonstrate innovation, profitability, and business excellence while serving as role models to inspire Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs in Africa.

It is now run by the ALN in partnership with OCP, a phosphate producer. It has awarded prices of over $2 million in value since inception and recognized over 35 leading African companies.

Among the prestigious awards are the Transformational Business (Revenue should exceed USD$50 million), the Outstanding Mature Business (Revenues of $5-50 million) Outstanding Growing Business (Revenue of $500 thousand to $5 million) and the Outstanding Social Entrepreneur award (Revenues between $150,000 and $2.5 million and addressing a social problem for communities in Africa).

This year’s awards will be held at the ALN Annual Gathering in Marrakech, Morocco on the 5^th of November 2015.

To enter into this competition, businesses apply directly or are nominated by interested members after which they undergo an audit process. Astro Mobile was audited through PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Astro Mobile is profiled by ALN as a “large ecommerce company and a mobile and electronic solutions provider with branches across Africa” recognising Astro Mobile growth over the years with various entrepreneurial products.

these have included the mobile phone, television, laptop distribution, mobile accessories and wearables, its Payit payments solution, MobiStore the content distribution attempt, custom mobile apps and the supply of various custom made communication devices in Zimbabwe.

Some of the products such as Payit and MobiStore are yet to be established but during an official opening of one of their shops earlier this year they disclosed even more ambitious plans to open a local assembly plant for their mobile devices by the end of the year.

Speaking about the nomination and the prospects of scooping the award Astro Mobile’s Marketing Manager, Masimba Ndoro, welcomed the development as a great endorsement for Astro and the brand Zimbabwe, as well as a challenge to produce even more high quality products. He added that considering the competition they are up against, they have already been endorsed whether they win or lose.