However, despite the regulatory efforts, investigations revealed that thousands of unapproved phone brands were still being sold across the country. While the unapproved phones are in most cases sub-standard, they sell faster than the approved ones as they are sold at cheaper prices.
With over 184.4 million mobile subscriptions as of December 2019, Nigeria remains a veritable market for mobile manufacturers across the world. According to NCC, Chinese mobile manufacturers are currently dominating the Nigerian mobile market.
Brands like Tecno, Huawei, and ZTE lead the pack of approved devices. New entrants into the market doing well currently are also Chinese phones. They include Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo. The phones have also been approved by the NCC.
While commenting on the rate at which unapproved phones are sold in the country, the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta urged consumers to desist from purchasing phones that have not been certified for the market by the NCC.