The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has joined forces with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to tighten the screening of imported communication devices, in a move aimed at preventing counterfeit, cloned and substandard equipment from entering Nigeria’s telecommunications market.
The partnership marks a significant shift towards stricter enforcement of the Commission’s type approval requirements, with regulatory checks now extending to the point of entry to ensure that non-compliant devices are intercepted before reaching distributors and consumers.
Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity at the NCC, Edoyemi Ogoh, disclosed the collaboration during a media briefing at the Commission’s head office annex in Mbora, Abuja. He explained that the initiative forms part of an enhanced type approval compliance framework designed to ensure that communication equipment imported, marketed and operated in Nigeria meets approved technical and regulatory standards.
The involvement of the Nigeria Customs Service is expected to strengthen enforcement by enabling the authorities to identify and intercept unapproved devices at the nation’s borders, rather than waiting until such products have entered the retail market or been connected to telecommunications networks.
Under the enhanced framework, the NCC will deploy an electronic authentication system to verify the approval status of SIM-enabled communication devices. The system is expected to make it easier to identify equipment that fails to meet the Commission’s technical and regulatory requirements.
Existing stocks of communication devices are also being registered on the platform, while new imports will be subjected to authentication and verification to establish their compliance status before gaining access to telecommunications networks. The initiative is expected to place additional pressure on importers, distributors and retailers dealing in unapproved equipment, particularly operators in Nigeria’s extensive grey-market device trade.
The market has long provided channels for the circulation of unverified mobile phones, modems, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, tablets and other communication equipment, often without the necessary regulatory checks.