Huawei has teamed up with Microsoft to launch its first Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the 4Afrika (with a K), which will go on sale in seven countries in Africa before the end of March 2013.

The handset, which is expected to cost around $150 (or roughly £90), is a variant of the Huawei Ascend W1 which is the company’s first Windows Phone 8 handset and was announced at CES in January 2013.

Featurewise, it is situated somewhere beteween the Lumia 620 and the Lumia 820, a £150 and £350 part respectively. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 SoC clocked at 1.2GHz with 512MB of RAM, 4GB onboard storage, a microSd card slot, a 4in WVGA IPS display with Zero-gap touch technology, NFC, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 1,950mAh battery plus a dedicated proprietary store that was apparently “built and designed by Africans for Africans”.

The phone is likely to be unveiled in Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month alongside a slew of other Windows Phone 8 handsets. Microsoft says that it is the first of a number of 4Afrika devices that will be launched on the African market.

Should it go on sale for less than £100, it will be the cheapest Windows Phone 8 handset on the market, besting the Lumia 620 which costs £150 at O2.