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Business Reporter
ASTRO, an indigenous pan-African mobile brand, is among short-listed companies for the African Leadership Network’s Awards for Entrepreneurship, which were scheduled to be announced in Morocco yesterday.

The Zimbabwean company was nominated for Outstanding Mature Business Award along with TA Telecom of Egypt and mi-Fone of Kenya.

The awards ceremony were scheduled to take place at the ALN Annual Gathering in Marrakech, Morocco in the evening yesterday.

Others firms nominated for the final awards are Kerochee Breweries and Techno Brain from Kenya, vying for Transformational Business Award, Snapplify (South Africa) and Logiciel Limited (Ghana) angling for Outstanding Growing Business Award.

Marketing manager Mr Masimba Ndoro said it was a great honour for the mobile company to be short-listed at a continental level. He said the recognition is also a great endorsement of Zimbabwe as a brand.

“Just the calibre of the other nominees speaks volumes. It’s a tight contest, but it can only propel us to work even harder and smarter in delivering exceptional value to our clients and partners,” he said.

The firm has now come a long way, since incorporation in 2012. It now has branches in Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Mutare, Gweru and Marondera.

Astro products are distributed through approved partners.

Mr Ndoro said the economic environment has not been easy to operate in, as it has faced challenges like any other Zimbabwean business, but said in this last quarter the situation began to improve.

“We have expanded our operations into the region, starting with Zambia where we have formed a strategic distribution partnership with Airtel, a leading Mobile Network Operator and prospects are looking good. Our vision is to move into at least four countries in the next two years.”

Astro aims to provide a wide range of mobile phone devices, electronics, services and software to enable people to go beyond communication to convenience.

Astro Mobile is the first Zimbabwean firm to make its own mobile phone devices in the country.

Its products range from entry level smart phones for emerging markets, to converged tablet multimedia computers that embrace the benefits of the Internet that aim to suit the choices of all its customers.

African Awards for Entrepreneurship are designed to recognise business leaders who demonstrate business excellence, while serving as role models to inspire Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs.

ALN creates and strengthens relationships between these leaders to encourage intra-African trade, investment, and collaboration among them. Nearly $2 million has been awarded to African companies.

The panel of judges for the 2015 AAE include Uyi Akpata, director at PwC West Africa; Osagie Imasogie, senior managing partner, Phoenix IP Ventures; Ed Brakeman, managing director at Bain Capital LLC; Dana Reed, strategic consultant at Pan- African Investment Company; and Jonathan Tawiah, CEO of Ostec and 2014 recipient of the Outstanding Mature Business Award.

Last year’s AAE winners include Choppies (Botswana), Banapads (Uganda), and Ostec (Ghana). After receiving their awards, many AAE winners commit themselves to driving ALN’s mantra of “Powering Africa’s Prosperity” by mentoring early stage entrepreneurs.