NCC charges Tecno, OEMs on Nigerian plants

Claims fake mobile phones contribute to poor QoS

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on Tecno and other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) trading in the country to make it a matter of priority to establish a manufacturing plant in Nigeria.

The NCC said this has become imperative going by the volumes of businesses Tecno and other OEMs are making out of the Nigerian market space.

Giving this charge on behalf of NCC, the commission’s Technical Standards and Networking Integrity officer, Kenneth Uzoekwe, said that the FG wants to ride on the ICT sector to create jobs.

He stressed that it has become imperative that Tecno and other OEMs should start local production of handsets to enhance local content development in the country.

Uzoekwe, who disclosed this at the launch of Tecno’s Boom J8 mobile phone in Lagos, at the weekend, stressed that NCC was ready to provide the needed support to any OEM, which is ready to begin production in Nigeria.

The NCC official further said that Nigerians should be wary of the type of phones they purchase in the market, stressing that some sets of mobile devices trending in the market are not typed- approved by the commission.

While appreciating the efforts of Tecno in ensuring that all its devices, especially the mobiles are typed approved by the commission, Uzoekwe said: “not all handsets in the market are good. Type –Approval enables us to check the standards. Tecno phones passed through the commission’s test and got approval.

“Nigerians should note that QoS is not only a network problem, because investigations have shown that fake and bad mobile phones contribute significantly to poor telecoms services.”

Corroborating Uzoekwe’s claims, Group Head, Electrical, Electronics, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Adewumi Rasheed, said Nigerians should stop patronizing unlabeled phones.