The Government of Kenya has finally realized the benefits of making phones cheap and available for its citizens. During yesyerdays budget speech by the Minister for Finance, Uhuru Kenyatta, he proposed the removal of VAT on all mobile phones sold in the market.

Here is the extract from the speech:

"  Second, Mr. Speaker, since 2000 when only about 200,000 Kenyans had the privilege to
own a mobile handset, the mobile telephony industry has grown tremendously, now estimated at
about 17.5 million subscribers. Mobile telephones have, therefore, become essential aspect of
our daily communication and transaction system. To make the telephone sets more affordable to
wananchi and expand the subscription base, I propose to exempt from VAT, all telephones, for
cellular networks or other wireless networks. I do hope the dealers in these products will pass this
benefit to ordinary wananchi by lowering prices."

This should go a long way in  making the mobile phones cheaper in the country, which have been in the past a bottle neck for increase in the number of users who use the phones.