Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has disclosed that Nigeria has the wherewithal to produce Subscriber Identification Module cards and smart phones.
Pantami, who made this known during a media briefing organised by the All Progressives Congress professional forum at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, on Thursday, said Nigeria could produce about 200 million SIM card yearly.
According to him, this is beside the country’s capacity to produce 60 to 70 per cent of smartphone components and locally.
His words, “We came up with a policy that we wanted Nigeria to produce a minimum of 60 to 70 per cent of what we need in the telecommunications sector in the next two to three years locally and we have started it.
“When this administration came in, even SIM cards were imported into country. But as of today, the Federal Government has provided an enabling environment for the private sector and we now have the capacity to produce SIM cards, not only for our consumption, but for the African continent.”
Nigeria, he maintained, has the capacity to produce a minimum of 200 million SIM cards yearly.
“We have provided an enabling environment for the private sector to start the production of smartphones,” he added.
He restated his resolve to leverage information technology in boosting the economy and tackling the country’s security challenges, adding that the SIM card registration exercise was part of measures to achieve the goal.
“We cannot ignore security. Security cannot be compromised, because of economic development. It should be our priority and preference. So, we have initiated several policies to support security institutions,” he said.
The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Danbatta, said the commission was not resting on its oars to tackle kidnappings and other crimes in the country.
He assured that kidnappers would face the full wrath of the law, adding that that notwithstanding their antics and tactics, the NCC had been working with security agencies to ensure the wellbeing of Nigerians.
“All registered SIM cards have the biometric and demographic data of their holders. Once such a SIM card is used to commit any crime, we can easily identity the perpetrator through information in the database. We have been doing that all along,” he said.
