Telecom Operators Back NCC’s Local Smartphone Manufacturing Drive To Widen Digital Access

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria has declared support for the Nigerian Communications Commission’s push to promote local smartphone manufacturing in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that ALTON described the move as a practical measure capable of accelerating broadband adoption and expanding digital inclusion across the country.

ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, made the remarks to newsmen on Saturday while reacting to comments by NCC Board Chairman Idris Olorunnimbe, who had earlier called for local smartphone production and innovative financing models to address Nigeria’s digital inclusion gap.

Adebayo said Nigeria must intentionally transition from being predominantly a technology consumer to becoming an innovator, designer and manufacturer of digital technologies, pointing to the country’s large telecommunications market and youthful population as the scale and human capital needed to support world-class manufacturing.

He said Nigeria’s ambition in local manufacturing should extend well beyond simply assembling imported components into finished devices.

“Our ambition should extend beyond assembling devices. We must pursue genuine knowledge transfer, research and development, product engineering, software development, semiconductor capabilities and large-scale manufacturing,” he said, adding that the goal should be producing devices and digital technologies for Nigeria, Africa and the global market.

Adebayo explained that the emergence of artificial intelligence has further strengthened Nigeria’s opportunity to become a competitive technology manufacturing hub, noting that AI is transforming product design, manufacturing, quality assurance, supply chain management, customer experience and software innovation.

He said investing in AI-enabled manufacturing would improve productivity, create high-value jobs and strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness across Africa.

On tackling counterfeit and non-type-approved devices, Adebayo described the grey market as a major challenge affecting consumers, original equipment manufacturers and the wider telecommunications ecosystem. He said robust local manufacturing backed by strong quality standards would provide credible alternatives to grey-market imports.

“This will strengthen consumer protection, improve network performance, retain greater value within our economy, and stimulate industrial growth,” he said, while also endorsing innovative smartphone financing, stronger device management systems and identity-enabled credit frameworks to help more Nigerians afford quality smartphones.

Adebayo said telecom operators remain ready to partner with government, manufacturers, financiers, academia, investors and development partners to build sustainable local manufacturing capacity in Nigeria.

His comments followed remarks by NCC Board Chairman Idris Olorunnimbe at a Digital Africa Summit Roundtable in Shanghai, where he identified smartphone affordability, rather than network coverage or data costs, as Nigeria’s biggest remaining digital inclusion challenge.

Olorunnimbe described affordable smartphones as the “new on-ramp” to education, healthcare, financial services, e-commerce and digital government, underscoring how central device affordability has become to Nigeria’s broader digital economy ambitions.

He called for coordinated action on local manufacturing, trusted devices, financing and policy reforms to accelerate broadband adoption and unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s digital economy.

Adebayo’s comments come on the heels of ALTON throwing its weight behind a CBN directive on local hosting of payment transaction data.

Recall that ALTON said the CBN’s new directive on the local hosting of payment transaction data will help reduce Nigerian banks’ and fintechs’ exposure to foreign exchange volatility.

The directive mandates banks, fintech companies, and other payment service providers to store payment transaction data generated within Nigeria on local servers from January 1, 2027. The policy is part of broader efforts by the CBN to strengthen regulatory oversight of the country’s rapidly expanding digital payments ecosystem.