Smartphone affordability: ALTON backs NCC’s call for local device manufacturing
Lagos, June 2026 (TBL Africa) The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has backed the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) call for local smartphone manufacturing to accelerate digital inclusion.
The ALTON Chairman, Mr Gbenga Adebayo, made this known to newsmen on Saturday while reacting to the NCC Board Chairman, Idris Olorunnimbe’s call for local smartphone production and innovative financing.
Adebayo described the proposal as a practical measure capable of accelerating broadband adoption and expanding digital inclusion across the country.
He said Nigeria must deliberately transition from being predominantly a technology consumer to becoming an innovator, designer and manufacturer of digital technologies.
According to him, Nigeria’s large telecommunications market and youthful population provide the scale and human capital needed for world-class technology manufacturing.
The ALTON chairman said the country’s ambition should extend beyond assembling smartphones into developing complete technology capabilities across the value chain.
“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 stressed.
He said the objective should be producing devices and digital technologies for Nigeria, Africa and the global market.
Adebayo said the emergence of Artificial Intelligence had further strengthened Nigeria’s opportunity to become a competitive technology manufacturing hub.
He said AI was transforming product design, manufacturing, quality assurance, supply chain management, customer experience and software innovation.
According to him, investing in AI-enabled manufacturing will improve productivity, create high-value jobs and strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness across Africa.
Adebayo also supported Olorunnimbe’s position on tackling the proliferation of counterfeit and non-type-approved devices through stronger market integrity.
He described the grey market as a major challenge affecting consumers, Original Equipment Manufacturers and the wider telecommunications ecosystem.
According to him, robust local manufacturing supported by strong quality standards will provide credible alternatives to grey-market imports.
He said effective type approval, competitive pricing and consumer confidence would encourage wider acceptance of locally manufactured smartphones.
“This will strengthen consumer protection, improve network performance, retain greater value within our economy, and stimulate industrial growth,” he said.
Adebayo also endorsed innovative smartphone financing, stronger device management systems and identity-enabled credit frameworks.
He added that the initiatives would enable more Nigerians to acquire quality smartphones through affordable payment models.
According to him, telecom operators remain ready to partner government, manufacturers, financiers, academia, investors and development partners to build sustainable local manufacturing.
The ALTON boss described the initiative as a national economic transformation agenda capable of creating jobs and strengthening Nigeria’s position in the global digital economy.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that earlier at a Digital Africa Summit Roundtable in Shanghai, Olorunnimbe had said Nigeria’s biggest digital inclusion challenge was no longer network coverage or the cost of data but smartphone affordability.
He said affordable smartphones had become the “new on-ramp” to education, healthcare, financial services, e-commerce and digital government.
He urged for coordinated action on local manufacturing, trusted devices, financing and policy reforms to accelerate broadband adoption and unlock Nigeria’s digital economy.
