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Research in Motion (RIM) has announced plans to open its first Africa-based BlackBerry development centre in Egypt

Located in Smart Village, Cairo’s high-tech industrial park, the centre will enable the firm to focus on its growing market base in the Middle East and parts of Africa.

RIM has recently launched new BlackBerry products and services in Benin, Angola and South Africa, while in the Middle East the Toronto-listed company saw a 140 per cent increase in BlackBerry subscribers last year.

The company has suffered from failing global sales, however, announcing a US$125 million loss in Q4 and a 45 per cent drop in sales in the US.

The new development centre in Cairo, which will hire staff from a pool of local software engineers, can be considered a glowing endorsement from a global corporation in post-revolution Egypt’s economic stability.

RIM said that one of its applications currently under development would provide BlackBerry users with information about Egypt’s upcoming presidential elections.

The company recently held its first ever ‘BlackBerry Developer Days’ conference in Cairo, which featured introductory sessions on the BlackBerry development platform, Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry App World monetisation.

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