Chris Otaigbe
Patronage of Local manufacturers, in Nigeria, is very low and violates the Local content Executive Order 003, NAN reports.
The President of Certified Computer Manufacturers of Nigeria (CCMON), Mrs Adenike Abudu, disclosed this in a virtual meeting monitored in Abuja between the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and CCMON.
She said that the comparative patronage of Nigerian OEMs was relatively low and that investments made by indigenous OEMs was still underutilized, adding that several government agencies still did not patronize indigenous OEMs as required by the Guidelines for Nigerian Content and Executive Orders 003, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
She however identified gaps in communication between NITDA and the association, noting that there is a need to improve interaction.
The president also said there was need for partnership with NITDA to ensure implementation of policies that would help OEMs to thrive and create more jobs.
“The specification of these devices by MDAs is complex because the components of hardware are the same. The only difference is the processor and there are over 10 different types of processors and OEMs cannot stock up one type of processor, they work with the requested specifications at every given time,” Abudu said.
Similarly, the Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, called on Certified Computer Manufacturers of Nigeria (CCMON) to improve the quality of indigenously made devices.
The meeting agenda was on issues affecting the increasing adoption of indigenously assembled devices in Nigeria and possible ways of moving the country’s ICT hardware sub-sector of the economy forward.
Through the adequate implementation of local content policy, Inuwa said CCMON could build synergy to ensure devices meet minimum standards and requirements.
According to him, the requirements will enable Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have sufficient after-sales-support of their devices.
The director-general announced a joint committee between the two institutions to address all concerns and ensure strategic plans, headed by the National Coordinator, Office for Nigerian Content, NITDA, Mr Kassim Sodangi.
Inuwa encouraged the manufacturers to be competitive in terms of price and set their target to meet public needs.
On his part, Sodangi said the agency had been engaging Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through its IT project clearance channel, adding that they had also encouraged purchases of local devices.
He regretted that NITDA cannot be everywhere to monitor compliance to local devices patronage, but insisted that IT procurements should give preference to indigenous manufacturers as stipulated in Executive Order 003.
The national coordinator admonished OEMs to do their marketing and promote their products because some MDAs are in need of points to purchase their devices in large quantity.
While Nigerian manufacturers on the ICT turf would wish the current determination by this part of government ‘good luck’ on the journey it is promising to embark on, it is noteworthy to know that similar effort yielded little or nothing in the past, despite the executive order backing the Local Content Law for the sector.
Surveys have shown that two sub-sectors of Nigeria’s Information and Communications Technology industry, that have continued to suffer from poor patronage, remain software development and computer manufacturing.
Despite several measures put in place to jump-start the country’s N200 billion software sector, which seem to be yielding results, patronage for locally assembled computer products is still at its lowest ebb.
Identified as sine-qua-non to Nigeria’s drive towards a knowledge economy, Jim Ovia Foundation; LAN, Intel, the Ministry of Communications Technology; Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON); among others have in one way or the other made case for indigenous software development through a number of initiatives.
However, for manufacturers such as Zinox, Omatek, Veda, and Brian among others, purchase of their output has been very unimpressive; thus necessitating their divestment into other related ventures to stay afloat.
Of the 740,000 computers acquired by Nigerians in 2012, for instance, only 148,000 were manufactured locally. In other words, over 80% of the personal computers bought by Nigerians, that year, were foreign brands.
Remarkably, half of this 20% market share by all the indigenous players put together is controlled by a single brand. Foreign computer brands such as HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba and Samsung, among others, are said to be controlling 80% of the Nigerian computer market.
The development has been blamed partly on the insensitivity of government to support players in the hardware computer-manufacturing sector, especially in the area of favourable policy formulation.
Specifically, stakeholders have, over the years, pointed accusing fingers at government for not coming up with favourable policies that give indigenous players preferential treatment compared with their foreign brands.
Even organizations and states that are supposed to lead the campaign for patronage of local ICT wares seem to be showing preference for foreign brands, just as several other government establishments, including Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), still prefer to use foreign computer brands.
Worrying is the fact that manufacturers of these international brands of computers coming into the country are believed to be enjoying good operating condition in their respective countries and consequently well positioned to sell at competitive prices.
Due to high cost of production incurred, occasioned by general poor state of infrastructure in the country, the unfriendly monetary policy where interest rate is at double-digit rate and above all low patronage from Nigerians, Industry analysts maintain that Nigerian computer firms have always found it hard to compete favourably with foreign counterparts.
Thus, multinational ICT manufacturers like Samsung, HP, Dell, Acer, Asus and vendors (Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson) continue to take control of the hardware market, leaving indigenous operators such as Zinox Computers, Brian Integrated Systems, among others, to battle to ensure that they are not pushed out of the market completely.
With an estimated four million ICT devices reported to be pouring into the country on a monthly basis, it means that Nigeria continues to lose revenue in capital flights owing to the importation of hardware products.
Little wonder, ICT experts assert that Nigeria remains a dumping ground for all forms of technologies, even those that are substandard, as dominance of the market by foreign products in ICT is equally robbing the country of the ability to develop a knowledge-based economy.
Consequently, as at 2017, Nigeria was losing billions of naira to the preference for foreign ICT products and services, which would have amounted to a loss of about N120bn on the importation of foreign technologies, in the last five years.
As the immediate past Director-General of NITDA, and current the Communications and ICT Minister, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, said in an effort to discourage the frequent importation of foreign technologies, the Federal Government on December 2, 2013, launched the Nigerian Content Development Initiative, which was spearheaded by NITDA with the formal adoption of the regulatory guidelines for content development of the ICT.
If Nigerians must support local contents, Industry experts said they should ensure the letter and the spirit of executive orders 003 and 005 are brought to the fore and remain the guiding principles in all business transactions, in the overall interest of the nation.
Players in the nation’s ICT sector have advocated that government should tackle the challenges posed by fluctuations in foreign exchange and inconsistent policies, which, according to him, limit the focus of investors.
Virtually all of them believe that Nigeria cannot play up to its potentials as the giant of Africa without adequate power supply and improved manpower development.
