Over 20 Mobile Phone Brands in Nigeria Market Not Approved

‎The Association of Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ATCON), has called for urgent measures to curb the increasing rate of dumping fake mobile phones in the countrMr. Olusola Teniola, ATCON president made the call during a special reception in honour of Dr. Umar Danbatta, executive vice president of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

He said that investigations have revealed that more than twenty (20) mobile phone brands in the country are not NCC type-approved and contribute significantly to the persistent poor quality of service‎ (QoS).

Although, names of the phone brands are yet to be made public, however, Teniola said that the unregistered/unapproved brands have over one hundred and fifty (150) mobile phone models circulating in Nigeria.

He said that the Association believes more stringent measures should be taken to curb the counterfeiting of mobile phones in the country.

Teniola said, "We plead with ‎Government to put in place anti-counterfeiting measures such as the facilitation of integrated Web portal based IMEI-IMSI collection to stem the menace of substandard or unregistered mobile phones circulating in Nigeria with obvious consequences of poor quality of service, loss of revenue to the government, loss of business by OEMs‎ and loss of jobs as well as in revenue to the Nigeria mobile market.

"For instance, we have more than twenty mobile phone brands that do not have NCC type approved certificate to operate in Nigeria. This unregistered/unapproved brands have over one hundred and fifty mobile phone models circulating in Nigeria".

He added that the Association observed 10% of fake mobile phones products of some of the popular mobile phone brands circulating in Nigeria.

‎Meanwhile, Dr. Danbatta, NCC EVC, in a swift response, said the Commission has doubled its effort on equipment type approval with the aim to ensure genuine and standardised products are imported or introduced in the Nigerian market.

According to Danbatta, NCC's quest to ensure equipment type approval will definitely aid innovation and protection of genuine products in the market.