Mobile phone sales and market entry have seen impressive growth in Africa in recent times. While many Africans had been priced out of the market, several companies are now producing much more affordable handsets to meet demand, and one of them can be found in the Chinese province of Guangdong.

Shenzhen in Guangdong is the heart of the country’s mobile phone manufacturing industry with thousands of companies operating in the field. Among them is a little-known company called Transsion, which has managed to cut a niche for itself in Africa.

Transsion has spent the last decade trying to crack the African market. By the end of last year, it had seized nearly 40 percent of the market share in six African countries, including one of the continent's hotspots, Nigeria.

Transsion now has more than a hundred million customers in Africa, using very affordable brands like TECNO, INFINIX and Itel handsets.

“Our intention when we went into Africa was to serve the community with something that can bring value, not just about making money. Because making money can be short-term, but adding value is long-term,” said Arif Chowdury, vice president of Transsion.

Chowdury attributed the company's success to its huge investment in research.