African business Gamechanger, Prateek Suri CEO Maser receives UAE’s Golden Visa
A game-changer businessman who is making inroads into the African market with an electronic start-up, Maser, which is focused on disrupting the continent’s consumer electronic market with low-cost high quality products offering, Prateek Suri, has been granted the prestigious Golden Visa from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Dubai Golden Visa scheme was launched on May 2019 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE. The system allows foreigners to live, work and study in the UAE without the need of a national sponsor and 100 percent ownership of their businesses on the UAE’s mainland.
Suri, an Indian-born mechanical engineer, started his Maser brand in UAE, growing the business in leaps and bounds to expand to Africa where it is gradually establishing its foot-hold, starting from Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Speaking on the Golden Visa, Suri said: “I feel greatly honored and I profusely thank the government of UAE for granting me this esteemed Visa. I am indeed grateful and I look forward to continue working and connecting with this great country!”
According to UAE, the Golden Visa was specifically launched for professionals in a bid to keep the ‘talented people and great minds’ in the Gulf country so that they can help in nation-building.
Those eligible for the visa include CEOs and specialists in various fields, investors, researchers, entrepreneurs and bright students with promising scientific capabilities, among others.
The main purpose of the Dubai Golden Visa is to retain ‘the brightest and most promising expatriates in the UAE’ by providing them with a long-term Visa. The Golden Visa, which can be renewed automatically, is issued for 10 years.
Suri, the latest recipient of the Dubai Golden Visa, has invested heavily in Africa Region whereby in 2019 alone, his start-up, Maser, sold 200,000 electronic units in Dubai alone, with 70 percent being re-exported to Africa, a volume that trebled to 600,000 in 2020 making the brand 1st Consumer Tech brand in Africa to sell highest number of units, a demonstration on how Maser’s products are rapidly gaining traction in the African market. The electronics firm currently boasts a strong footprint in Kenya and Tanzania, its two major ladders to scaling the continent’s vast market.
