Mobile devices counterfeiting poses great economic danger to Nigeria, NCC says

Nigeria is losing billions of naira in revenue due to mobile devices counterfeiting, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said. Speaking in Abuja Thursday at a one day stakeholders meeting on combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices, NCC’s acting Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) Professor Umar Garba Danbatta said counterfeiting posed a great economic danger as […]

Nigeria is losing billions of naira in revenue due to mobile devices counterfeiting, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said.
Speaking in Abuja Thursday at a one day stakeholders meeting on combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices, NCC’s acting Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) Professor Umar Garba Danbatta said counterfeiting posed a great economic danger as it cheats the country of revenue from taxes and duties.
The menace also poses danger to the health and safety of consumers and breaching their privacies, Prof Danbatta said.
But he added that NCC was concerned with the negative effects on communication network operations as it concerns degrading quality of service (QOS) delivery.
The NCC boss stated that the commission is working closely with Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF) to push for a change in legal and regulatory frameworks so as to restrict the activation of counterfeit devices on telecoms networks.
NCC would also collaborate with necessary agencies to restrict importation of mobile devices and accessories that are not compliant to industry standards, he added.
 Later in his presentation, the Director of MMF (Europe Middle East and Africa) Mr Thomas Barmuller said $6billion is being lost annually due to mobile devices counterfeiting.
According to Barmuller, India alone loses $1.5bn revenue to fake devices yearly while the country also loses $545million in tax revenue due to the menace.
Barmuller, who did not disclose how much Nigeria loses to counterfeiting yearly, however said that a clue of that could be known through the Indian figures.
    He attributed drop calls and other QOS problem being experienced by subscribers to fake phones.