Mobile Zone Ghana, sole distributors of Tecno Phones in Ghana walked away with the Mobile Distributor of the Year award at the 3rd MobileWorld Ghana Telecom Awards. Last year, one of Tecno Phones were adjudged handsets of the year and it was largely based on their general popularity in Ghana, which was made possible by the effective distribution network behind the brand. This year, Samsung S3 was handset of the year, but Tecno’s distribution network at Mobile Zone could not be overlooked as it has always been touted as the most efficient in country by several industry players. Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Tecno, Jocelene Buckman received the award on behalf of the company, and she told Adom News “we are very excited about the award because it shows that our hard work, planning and investment at Mobile Zone are being recognized.” She said currently the company has a network of 12 branches in Ghana, with four main distribution points in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale, plus over 300 private dealer shops, all of which are branded by Tecno and are often captured in Tecno promo’s to direct traffic to them. “We also have seven distribution vans which operate from the four distribution points and they go round on daily basis distributing handsets to the various retail shops across the country. Each van distributes between 10,000 and 30,000 handsets every week,” she said. Jocelene Buckman said in May 2013 alone Tecno sold 120,000 handsets including 10,000 smartphones (Tecno N7 and N3) and that was a reflection of what happens on monthly basis, adding that with the increasing demand for the N7 in particular, they expect sales to go even higher. “Last month demand for Tecno N7 exceeded supply so we were forced to order for more from our mother company,” she said. “On June 8, 2013 we will be launching our new Smartphone, Phantom A, which has higher specs compared with N7 and our dealers have already started pre-ordering so we expect that it would be a big breakthrough for us.” Jocelene Buckman said Tecno believes that distribution is the backbone of their business so they have invested heavily to into drawing a mapping system which allows Mobile Zone to retail in specific areas and sub-let other areas strategically to the 300 dealers across the country. Asked if Mobile Zone would consider distributing other brands alongside Tecno, she said “we do not want to neutralize the brand so we will stay with just Tecno and continue to push it as a durable brand that gives user great experience at very affordable prices. “We believe great mobile experience can be affordable and we continue to prove that and we will even do more of than with our new range of smartphones which will sell at prices three times lower than other brands of similar quality and features on the market,” she said. Meanwhile, the company is still working on modalities to establish an assembling plant in Ghana to produce not less than one million handsets a month for the West-African market. It is also gearing up to provide a platform for young app developers to produce apps for Tecno handsets and get paid.