Nigeria Consumes $2.35bn On Phone Importation Every 3 Years

Data from the International Trade Center (ICT) show that Nigeria imported telephones for $2.35 billion over three years.

According to the ITC, an international organization that focuses on trade, the country spent $807.95 million on the importation of phone sets in 2019, $765.57 million in 2020, and $772.25 million in 2021. According to the authority, among the imported telephone sets were cellphones, teleprinters, facsimile machines for line telephony, and more.

According to the data, China ($1.71 billion during the time under review) supplied the majority of the phone sets entering the nation. Additionally, the country imports goods from other countries, including Hong Kong, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Mexico, and others.

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) recently revealed that about 63 million technology devices were sold in Nigeria every year, quoting data from Original Equipment Manufacturers. The commission revealed that there were about 132 million unique devices on the nation’s telecommunication network in 2020 with the average owner changing a device every six months.

The Public Relations Officer of the Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria, Solagbade Olaifa, had also disclosed that about N5bn worth of devices were being sold at Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos yearly.

He had disclosed that Nigeria did not have the technology to produce devices yet. He said, “We do not have the technology to produce now, but we can fund part of it. We cannot produce as a whole because for every device, even over there, different companies produce its components. It is not only one company that produces every component of the devices. However, Nigeria can start somewhere.”

According to Counterpoint Research’s Global Monthly Handset Sales Tracker, the annual smartphone sales in Nigeria grew by 81 per cent year-on-year in 2021.

The Nigerian phone is dominated by foreign players such as Tecno, Samsung, and Itel. While Nigeria has the seventh-highest number of phones in the world, according to the World Population Review, its local phone manufacturing industry is non-existent, and attempts to kickstart it have at best failed to flatter.