Nigerians spent $2.35 billion (about N987 billion) to import phones, mostly mobile telephone handsets, in three years.
According to data from the International Trade Centre (ITC), Nigerians spent $807.95 million (N340 billion) on importation of phones in 2019, $765.57 million (N322 billion) in 2020 and $772.25 million (N325 billion) in 2021.
ITC is a multilateral agency with a joint mandate with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the United Nations through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to promote economic empowerment and fairly paid job opportunities for women, youth, refugees and migrants and other vulnerable populations. It also provides country-and client-specific tailored support through unique advisory services, capacity building, training and mentoring, free tools and business data, and trade-specific publications.
The global trade body explained that the imported telephone sets included smartphones, facsimile machines for line telephony, teleprinters, parts of telephone sets, and more.
The data further revealed that most of the phone sets coming into the country were imported from China. The value of phones imported into Nigeria from China during the three-year period was $1.71 billion (N718 billion).
Nigeria also imported phones from Hong Kong, Sweden, United States of America, 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 (OEM).
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.
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