South African-founded OEM company, AG Mobile, has become the latest entrant into the highly competitive Nigerian smartphone market.

Addressing journalists in Lagos, Tayshira Santamaria, Executive Head of Marketing (Global), AG Mobile said: "AG Mobile has had an amazing welcome from the Nigerian people with our brand and product. We have never ever experienced that kind of reception."

"We are a very proud African brand. We are the longest standing African OEM on the continent at the moment. We believe we have a lot of value to bring to Nigeria. Nigeria is a very tough market, very competitive and lots of brands. So when you come into this market, you have to figure out what your strategy is and what values you are bringing. For that reason, it took us a while to come into Nigeria, but we believe that right now we have got a very strong proposition to offer to Nigerian public, corporate, our strategic partners like Ringo, MTN," she added.

AG Mobile aims to build a sustainable business, open an office, create employment, and become a wholly in-bulk Nigerian business.

"We intend to grow our footprint in Nigeria. Africa is our focus and we are focusing on understanding the market. Right now, our model is supported by strategic partners to ensure that our product is available on ground. We are not here ourselves right now, it's the way that we've entered the market. But our strategy, ambition and objective is that in a very short time, we want to ensure we are properly set up in Nigeria. We have all the support in place to make sure that the customer is taken care of," she said.

CEO Anthony Goodman, who launched AG Mobile in 2007, said the venture into Nigeria epitomises the company's brand expansion strategy to provide more Africans with affordable, quality products while investing in markets that offer mutually beneficial opportunities.

"As a proudly African brand we believe that we will bring great value to Nigeria. We've started by building relationships with well-respected brands such as MTN, Etisalat, Ringo and Jumia, creating employment opportunities, and supporting the networks' objectives to advance Nigeria's connectivity from 2G to 3G," he said.