Currently, her smartphones are ambitious competitors to low-cost brands.
Fadima Diawara (photo) is the founder and CEO of Kunfabo, the startup that contributes to digital inclusion in Guinea. In Malinke, kunfabo means “keep in touch”. So, the startup founded in 2017 wants to contribute to digital inclusion in Guinea and Africa as a whole.
Kunfabo smartphones were introduced in the local market in 2020 with preinstalled apps like Find me (which helps geolocalize nearest health centers and pharmacies), Afro Cook (a recipe search engine for African foods), and Dikalo, the messenger app developed by a Cameroonian startup. The smartphones run Android 8.1, are 4G-compliant, and are certified by international bodies, including several in the European Union.
Fadima initiated the Kunfabo project after she noticed the strong demand for quality and affordable smartphones in Africa. "Kunfabo came to meet this need by creating an African brand that represents us and that Africans can identify themselves with," explains the tech entrepreneur. She launched the smartphone thanks to a €300,000 loan she obtained from Societe Generale Guinea in November 2019. Barely a year later, in August 2020, she repaid that loan, testifying to the financial health of Kunfabo and the viability of her project. To date, her startup has sold over 4,000 smartphones.
Fadima Diawara started her professional career, in 2013, as a sales agent at Organo Gold, Spain. In 2015, she joined the administrative management department of Vueling, a low-cost airline. A few months later, she joined Prefabricats Planas before her recruitment at Bershka. In 2017, she was recruited at Lozano Imports Inc, where she stayed for three months before embarking on the Kunfabo adventure.
Her investment in the smartphone manufacturing industry earned her several awards over the years. Those awards include the Original Startup of the Year award in Spain in 2020. The same year, she won the award for best female entrepreneur of the year in Girona, Spain. She was also one of the winners of the 2020 Africa-France Summit Challenge.
Melchior Koba
