The changing nature of education from physical classes to virtual classes pushed up the demand for tablet computers in 2020, as the volume of tablets imported from China by Nigerian vendors increased by 78.34 percent year-on-year in 11 months.
Trade statistics obtained from China’s customs showed that Nigerian gadget vendors imported 59,050 pieces of tablet computers from January to November 2020 compared to 44,006 tablets imported in the same period in 2019.
Tablets are portable, flat computers fitted with a touchscreen display and a rechargeable battery.
The growth in demand for these devices more than doubled the investment of vendors in tablets as there was a 103.92 percent rise in the value of imported devices from $2.41m from January to November in 2019 to $4.91m in the corresponding period in 2020.
A breakdown of the data showed that in January and February 2020, 2,894 tablets valued at $184,123 were imported compared with 6,696 tablets values at $572,643 in the same period in 2019.
In March, the volume of tablets import declined by 25.3 percent to 8,322 tablets at $1.45m in 2020 from 11,142 tablets at $33,070 in 2019.
However, in April 2020 when the lockdown was announced in Abuja, Lagos, and Ogun states and schools across the country were shut, the volume of imported tablets from China surpassed 2019 figures due to the introduction of online classes by most schools.
The data indicated that 6,000 tablets valued at $1.19m were imported in April 2020 compared to 2,613 tablets worth $185,711 in the same period in 2019.
In May last year, vendors ordered 9,400 tablet computers valued at $821,110 as against 932 tablets worth $64,699 in the same month in 2019, recording an over 900 percent rise in volume.
In June 2020, vendors imported 10,240 tablets worth $463,279 as against 754 tablets worth $49,083 in the same month in 2019, recording over a 1,000 percent rise in volume.
The industry saw a 1,000 percent increase in tablet import volume from 1,298 in July 2019 at $119,988 to 4,751 devices in July 2020 at $132,238.
In August, imported tablets increased by 120.8 percent as 3,942 devices worth $344,246 came into the country in 2019 as against 8,705 tablets in the same month in 2020.
In September last year, vendors ordered 415 tablet computers valued at $29,016 as against 2,048 tablets worth $180,306 in the same month in 2019, recording over 79.7 percent decline in volume.
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Imported volume picked up in October 2020, recording 4,714 tablets worth $138,688 as against 3,685 devices in October 2019, representing 27.9 percent growth in volume.
In November 2020, vendors imported 3,609 tablets worth $211,549 as against 10,896 tablets worth $374,883 in the same month in 2019, recording over 66.88 percent decline in volume year-on-year.
Vendors at the Lagos Computer Village market attested to the huge demand for tablets, laptops, mobile phones, and other digital devices after the lockdown was partially lifted.
The Public Relations Officer, Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria, Ademola Olaifa, had said due to the high demand and limited stock, vendors had increased the prices of their products.
According to him, some orders placed in January and February for digital devices from Asia did not arrive on time.
“The market has been so good that we cannot meet up with the demand of some products. Our products from Asia are trickling in but not like what we experience before because the airport is not operational except for essential goods and our commodity does not fall in that category,” Olaifa said
The Chairman, Lagos State chapter of the Association of Mobile Phone and Allied Products Traders in Nigeria, Mr. Ifeanyi Akubue, explained that the increase in forex had pushed up prices of devices to between 10 to 20 percent.
According to him, few digital products arrived from Apapa port and airport during the lockdown, which has helped to meet some of the demand.
Analysts at International Data Corporation have projected that Europe, the Middle East, and Africa tablet market would increase 3.6 percent year-on-year in Q4 2020.
They estimated that the full year 2020 would grow at 10.1 percent year-on-year in the region, the highest YoY performance for the tablet market in EMEA since 2013.
According to them, education will continue to generate important volumes in the forthcoming quarters as tenders are put in place by local governments to address the possibility of new lockdowns.
“The whole region will be driven by substantial school digitisation projects reaching volumes of hundreds of thousands in some cases,” Senior Programme Manager, European Personal Computing Devices, Nikolina Jurisic, said.
