The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria has thrown its weight behind the Nigerian Communications Commission’s initiative to promote local smartphone manufacturing.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, ALTON said the initiative is a practical step that could significantly accelerate broadband penetration and deepen digital inclusion across Nigeria.
ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, made the remarks while speaking to journalists on Saturday in response to comments by NCC Board Chairman Idris Olorunnimbe, who had advocated local smartphone manufacturing and innovative financing models to bridge Nigeria’s digital inclusion gap.
Adebayo said Nigeria must deliberately shift from being largely a consumer of technology to becoming an innovator, designer, and manufacturer of digital technologies.
He noted that the country’s vast telecommunications market and youthful population provide the scale and talent required to support world-class smartphone manufacturing.
He said Nigeria’s local manufacturing drive should go beyond merely assembling imported components, stressing that the country’s ambition should be to build a robust ecosystem capable of designing, developing, and producing digital 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.
Adebayo said the rise of artificial intelligence has further enhanced Nigeria’s prospects of becoming a competitive technology manufacturing hub, noting that AI is revolutionising product design, manufacturing processes, quality assurance, supply chain management, customer experience, and software innovation.
He said investments in AI-driven manufacturing would boost productivity, create high-value jobs, and enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness across the African continent.
Addressing the challenge of counterfeit and non-type-approved devices, Adebayo described the grey market as a significant threat to consumers, original equipment manufacturers, and the broader telecommunications ecosystem. He said strengthening local manufacturing alongside strict quality standards would provide reliable 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.
Adebayo said telecommunications operators are ready to collaborate with the government, manufacturers, financiers, academic institutions, investors, and development partners to develop sustainable local manufacturing capacity and strengthen Nigeria’s technology ecosystem.
Adebayo’s remarks followed comments by NCC Board Chairman Idris Olorunnimbe at the Digital Africa Summit Roundtable in Shanghai, where he identified smartphone affordability—not network coverage or data costs—as Nigeria’s biggest remaining barrier to digital inclusion.
Olorunnimbe described affordable smartphones as the “new on-ramp” to education, healthcare, financial services, e-commerce, and digital government, stressing that access to affordable devices is now central to achieving Nigeria’s digital economy objectives.
He called for a coordinated approach involving local manufacturing, trusted devices, innovative financing, and supportive policy reforms to accelerate broadband adoption and unlock the full potential of the country’s digital economy.
