Nigerian Phone Market Gets Boost Of 351 Brands

The Nigerian Communications Commission has announced the addition of 351 brands to the previous 1,492 phone brands in the Nigerian market.

The telecommunications regulator said this on Tuesday, Nairametrics reports.

The commission noted that the devices passed through a rigorous test to get an approval to be sold to Nigerian consumers.

“The mobile handsets approved have been tested and found to meet the applicable Type Approval standards required to allow them to be sold to consumers and operated in the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” NCC said.

NCC said fake phone product does not just rob consumers of their money, it also causes several health challenges.

Tecno led the pack with over 200 models of its phones approved, Samsung got over 184 of its handsets approved, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, China, received approval of 136 brands while Nokia received approval for 108 brands of its mobile phones.

Apple Inc. received permission to sell 20 of its Iphone brands as ZTE, manufactured by ZTE Corporation, Shenzhen China has over 45 models approved, 31 Oppo phones were approved even as Xiaomi Communications Co. Ltd received approval for 30 brands.

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Other phones that received approval were Ericsson Mobile Phones (66 brands approved), Vivo (27 brands approved) and HTC phones (Hi Tech Computer) has 14 brands among many other phone brands.

“The menace of counterfeit and substandard handsets has assumed a global dimension and requires a lot of education on the part of the consumers and collaboration with other government agencies to address it,” Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC had said.

He added, “Cases of influx and patronage of counterfeit handsets are more rampant in developing countries, such as Nigeria, where importers bring in substandard phones without recourse to the regulatory type-approval process aimed at certifying such devices as fit for the market.”