FG seeks local production of mobile phones

…Waves market incentives on Chinese OEMs

….Telcos, subscribers commend move

By Prince Osuagwu, Hitech Editor.

THE Federal government has waved a carrot stick on Chinese phone manufacturers and their Nigerian counterparts to consider establishing phone manufacturing plants in Nigeria in exchange of mouth watering business incentives.

The government said that tax waivers and other rare operating incentives will be all for grabs to phone manufacturing companies who will take up the challenge, before November this year.

Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC’s board of commissioners, Dr. Idris Olorunnimbe, threw the bait at the Digital Africa Summit Roundtable in Shanghai, China.

Olorunnimbe, when called to share Nigeria’s perspectives on smartphone affordability as a gateway to digital world, went straight to where it pinches Nigeria: “I want to begin where every honest conversation about affordability has to begin, with the gap between what we have built and what our people can actually reach.

Nigeria is the largest mobile market on the continent. We carry more than 170 million mobile connections, and over 150 million Nigerians now use mobile internet, close to two in three of our citizens.

“The networks are there. The coverage is there and we are increasing coverage daily. And yet, by the GSMA’s own surveys, the single biggest barrier keeping Nigerians offline is not coverage, and it is not the price of data. It is the price of the device in their hands. That is the problem I came here to speak to.
“This work sits inside a clear national direction. Nigeria’s President has placed the digital economy at the centre of his Renewed Hope agenda, treating connectivity as productive infrastructure for the whole economy rather than a luxury for a few.

“Also under our Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who now chairs the Council of the International Telecommunication Union, Nigeria has gone after the foundations: open-access fibre through Project BRIDGE, three million young people in technical training, a national artificial intelligence strategy, and a full rewrite of a telecommunications policy that had stood unchanged since the year 2000.

“At the Commission, our Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive, Dr. Aminu Maida, has driven the regulatory machinery that makes a trusted market possible. I will come back to that machinery, because it sits at the centre of affordability.

“Let me say something that may sound strange coming from a regulator; regulation and market integrity are what make a market affordable in the first place. They are the precondition for it.

“A phone is only truly cheap if it is real, if it is safe, if it connects properly, and if it carries a warranty the buyer can rely on.

“A market flooded with cloned, counterfeit and substandard devices is not a cheap market at all. It is a market where people pay again and again for the same broken promise.

“This is where the grey market comes in, and I want to be candid about it. In Nigeria the grey market is large, and it is a symptom long before it is a crime. “When honest, formal devices are pushed out of reach by foreign-exchange swings, by customs and import duties and by thin distribution, people buy whatever they can find, wherever they can find it. The answer cannot be enforcement alone. We have to fix the conditions that drive buyers to the grey channels in the first place. “The Commission has built the tools for both halves of that job. Our Type Approval Regulations, refreshed in 2024 and aligned to international standards, certify that every device entering Nigeria meets real benchmarks for safety, radio performance and network compatibility.

“The Commission is advancing a Device Management System that will strengthen our ability to identify stolen, cloned, counterfeit and non-type-approved devices.

“ Properly implemented, it will reinforce consumer protection, safeguard networks, support national security and make the formal device market more credible.

“Now let me turn to the heart of what I came to say. We will not solve affordability at scale by importing our way out of it. We have to make more of the phones here, at home.

“The logic is simple. When a device is built with Nigerian raw materials and Nigerian labour, more of its cost is denominated in Naira. It stops rising and falling with every move in the dollar. That is how you take the volatility out of the price, bring the price down, and keep it down.

“I want to be honest about our record, because this table deserves honesty. Nigeria has tried local phones before.

“We have had assembly plants and home-grown brands, and most of them struggled. Part of the reason was a lack of patronage. A larger part was quality.

“Too many of those locally made devices simply did not last, and they could not stand beside an imported phone on durability or on user experience. So let me be clear about the goal. The aim is to build phones in Nigeria that match the imported phones on quality and beat them on price. “A locally made device that asks Nigerians to settle for less is not worth making, and we will not pretend otherwise.

“So I want to make an offer from this table, plainly. If any manufacturer in this room, or any manufacturer listening to these proceedings, will commit to building a factory in Nigeria.

, and to beginning construction between now and November, I will take that commitment to the President myself and seek the waivers and the support you need to make it happen. “Whatever it takes to get the plant standing, we will pursue it together, because every factory that rises in Nigeria grows our economy, employs our young people, and brings the price of a phone closer to what an ordinary Nigerian can pay” he averred.

Fortunately, both telecom operators in Nigeria and the telecom subscribers are with him in this crusade.
While the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria ALTON welcomes and strongly pledged support, the National Association of Telecom subscribers NATCOMMS described it as an idea which time has come.

Chairman of ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo told Hi-Tech : “We strongly support the vision articulated by the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Chief Idris Ibikunle Olorunnimbe, on making smartphone affordability the gateway to Nigeria’s digital future.

“The Chairman rightly identified that the major barrier to digital inclusion is no longer network coverage or even the cost of data, but the affordability and accessibility of quality smartphones. His call for local production, trusted device ecosystems, and innovative financing provides a practical roadmap for accelerating broadband adoption and digital inclusion across Nigeria.

“From the perspective of telecom operators, we believe Nigeria has reached a point where, given the size of our market and our demographic advantage, we must deliberately transition from being predominantly consumers of technology to becoming innovators, designers, and manufacturers. With one of the largest telecommunications markets in Africa and a youthful, dynamic population, Nigeria possesses the scale and human capital to support world-class technology manufacturing.

“Our ambition, however, should extend beyond assembling devices. We must pursue genuine knowledge transfer, research and development, product engineering, software development, semiconductor capabilities, and large-scale manufacturing. The objective should be to build an ecosystem that develops and produces devices and digital technologies not only for Nigeria but also for the African market and beyond” he added..

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