250 million fake phones sold in Nigeria yearly

The Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) reveal that about 250 million substandard phones were sold annually in the country.

The Acting Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Umar Danbatta, disclosed the figure during a stake holders meeting on‘ Combating Counterfeit and Substandard ICT Devices Programme in Abuja, on Thursday.

He stated that the damaging impact of the substandard products on the economy cannot be quantified in socio-economic terms.

“Counterfeiting is a growing economic problem affecting a wide range of products in the ICT sector, mobile phones are especially targeted with some 250 million counterfeits sold annually. This number constitutes about 15% to 20% of the global mobile phone market.
“Apart from the obvious negative economic impact of this ugly trend on the

manufacturers of genuine products, government, authorized dealers which include brand evaluation, loss of revenue, copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, loss of tax, cost of compliance with applicable national legislation, national security and loss of employment opportunities.

“This menace also poses danger to the health and safety of consumers equally breaching the privacy of consumers. Collective efforts is urgently needed to curtail counterfeiting in ICT.”