‘Why non-type approved devices are plenty in Nigeria’

Non-type approved mobile phones and other telecommunication devices are still many in Nigeria because of the country’s large population and market size, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said.

The NCC’s Director of Zonal Operations Amina Shehu who disclosed this at a sensitization programme in Suleja, Niger state recently said the problem of non-type approved phones had been very challenging for the NCC because of the country’s large market size that make it very attractive to marketers of non-type handsets.

‘’It is in response to these concerns in the public domain and the commitment of the NCC in improving quality of service, public safety and the general well-being of phone users that this sensitization is organised’’, Amina Shehu who was represented by a Principal Manager Zonal Operations, Malam Abubakar Usman, said.

She said the task before the NCC was to form a coalition of forces in a renewed strategic partnership with all the marketers of handsets in the sector, to contain the menace.

The effect of non type approved handsets, she said, include impact on quality of service and health concerns.

‘’The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is now undertaking an initiative at the regional level in collaboration with the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), WATRA and MWF to form a regional synergy in developing a framework for combating counterfeiting of ICT devices in the African sub-region’’, she said.

At the national, she said, the NCC has in place a robust type approval regulation which amongst other things, sought to discourage the use of counterfeit and substandard ICT products in Nigerian telecommunications industry.

In the fight against ICT products counterfeiting, she said, the commission had carried out series of clampdown on vendors, dealers, marketers of fake products and offenders were prosecuted.