Telecommunications industry regulator, Nigerian Telecommunications Commission, NCC, on Thursday, September 10, revealed that about 250 million fake phones were sold in the country annually.
Giving the figure during a stake holders meeting on ‘ Combating Counterfeit and Substandard ICT Devices Programme in Abuja, the acting Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Umar Danbatta, stressed the damaging impact of the substandard products on the economy.
According to him, the damaging effects of the products pose grave danger to the health, safety and privacy of buyers and the nation at large.
He said: “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.
Danbatta added that collective efforts is required to curb the menace of counterfeiting in ICT.
