The Nigerian Communications Commission has explained why Nigerians need to verify their phones, citing consumer protection, compliance with statutory requirements and the need to improve network quality.
The Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity at the NCC, Edoyemi Ogoh, stated this during an interview on Arise TV on Friday.
Ogoh said the initiative was necessary because the Nigerian Communications Commission Act 2003 required the commission to conduct type approval to ensure that devices entering the country were genuine and functioned as intended.
He said the measure would also protect consumers from purchasing counterfeit phones or imitation devices at prices meant for genuine products.
“One, it’s a statutory requirement. The NCC Act of 2003 actually specifies that we carry out type approval, and that’s the whole intent of that is to ensure that every device coming into the country is actually genuine and works the way it should work,” he said.
Ogoh added that the commission had discovered, during assessments of complaints about poor quality of service, that some of the problems were linked to the devices consumers used.
He said the findings informed the need to ensure that phones and other devices connected to telecommunications networks met the required standards.
“And from that perspective, we knew that we had to do something very important in line with both the statutory requirement for protecting consumers as well as ensuring that quality of service is assured for every user,” he said.
According to him, using devices that have not received type approval or do not function properly could affect not only their owners but also other people using telecommunications services in the same environment.
“When consumers utilise devices that are not type-approved, or that are operating in a way that should not operate, it does not just impact them, it also impacts others that are within the same environments that they are using those services,” he added.
The NCC has advised consumers to check their phones’ approval status before purchasing devices to ensure they meet the commission’s requirements for use on Nigerian telecommunications networks.
The initiative comes as the commission intensifies efforts to regulate devices connected to mobile networks. The NCC has reported registering about 231 million devices and taking steps to prevent unapproved devices from accessing telecommunications networks.
The commission has also provided guidance on checking phones’ approval status as part of efforts to help consumers identify devices that meet its requirements.