How Smartphone Makers Defraud Nigerian of Their Hard Earn money

Before I start my discussion, I want to say Nigeria is a wonderful country where people suffer yet smile as if all is okay, what I want to share today is a disturbing trend in the Nigeria mobile market that no one is willing to talk about for some few years.

OEM’s has seen Nigeria as a dumping zone where any shady activity is allowed. what do I mean? Now, I have seen a couple of phone makers make a certain phone with 1GB RAM, and then few-months later, they release the same phone with 2GB RAM and add appellations like “Plus, Max, Pro” at the end of the original name. These OEM’s deliberate intention is for Nigerians to dump their new phone to purchase the same phone with re-branded name. Bad!

The United States has a regulatory body called FCC that checks the quality and authenticity of phones coming into their country. Even the highly rated Xaiomi had a tough time entry the U.S market because of the standards the Chinese OEM had to meet.

Over here in Nigeria, the Standard Organization of Nigeria and NCC allows anything into Nigeria, as if our dear country is dumping ground for some of these phones that should be destroyed at the shores of Nigeria.

For other phone makers, they make the two variant, 1GB RAM and 2GB RAM, release only the 1GB version in Nigeria and send the two 2GB version to Kenya and UAE because those countries have a government – This is fraud!

Mobile users in Nigeria must begin to take pro-active steps into ensuring they don’t fall victim of these OEM’s who have only one goal and that is make abnormal profit. If the SON and NCC won’t do their jobs, we have got to do it ourselves.