The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced that 100% of the SIM cards used in the country are made locally, citing the commission’s commitment to promoting local content and indigenous involvement.
Babagana Digima, NCC’s Head of New Media and Information Security, disclosed this at a recent media training session in Lagos.
The two-day workshop was titled “upskilling media stakeholders on trends in telecommunications.”
Media executives were to receive training on the most recent developments in the telecom industry.
The purpose of the two-day programme was to improve media professionals’ comprehension of current trends and the strategic objectives of the NCC.
This significant event comes after Nigeria imposed a ban on SIM card imports in August 2022 with the intention of encouraging local involvement and business support.
Digima claimed that the NCC’s initiatives, spearheaded by the Nigeria Office for Development in the Indigenous Telecommunications Sector (NODITS), have been essential in increasing Indigenous engagement and supporting local content.
“Before NODITS’ intervention, nearly all SIM cards in Nigeria were imported,” Digima stated. “We set an ambitious goal to reverse this trend, and now 100% of SIM cards used in Nigeria are manufactured locally.”
In 2022, the Federal Government of Nigeria declared a prohibition on the importation of SIM cards, and the administration created a manufacturing unit for SIM cards in Lagos, according to Isa Pantami, the then-Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
It was said that the SIM card manufacturing facility produced 200 million cards or more a year.
“We aim to increase Indigenous content in the ICT sector so that by 2025, we will be self-reliant by at least 80 per cent”, the minister noted.
Notably, the Nigerian manufacturer Coleman Cables has outperformed its Egyptian counterpart in terms of manufacturing capacity and is still growing.
“We are currently sponsoring the manufacture of Corrugated Ordinal Duct, which will be the first of its kind in Africa.
“We also encourage the local production of telecom towers and fibre cables.
“Coleman Cables, a local manufacturer, has surpassed the only other producer in Egypt in terms of capacity and is continuing to expand,” said Digima.
We earlier reported that Dr Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister for Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, has announced strategic partnerships with industry leaders Cisco, 21st Century Technologies (including Awarri), and DataDotOrg.