The Nigerian government has banned the importation of subscriber identity module (Sim)cards into the country.
This development was made known by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami on Monday in Lagos.
He spoke at the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE) organized by the Nigeria Office for Developing Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NOTICE) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Pantami said Africa’s biggest country should not be importing things that could be produced within.
“Let me make it clear that the federal government will no longer tolerate the importation of sim cards. We are now producing them in Nigeria.
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“We aim to increase indigenous content in the ICT sector so that by 2025, we will be self-reliant by at least 80 percent”, the minister noted.
Pantami urged stakeholders and citizens to support government efforts to boost local patronage and consumption.
“If we do this, history will be kind to all of us”, the professor of Cybersecurity added.
Recall that sometime in June, Pantami informed the public that the Buhari administration had established a SIM card manufacturing plant in Lagos.
The facility, built with private sector support, can produce 200 million cards annually and also export them to other African countries. (Africainformant)
