The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the country sold 608,296 devices in three years.
The Director-General, NITDA, Dr Isa Pantami, made this known during the 14th Annual Technology Africa Leadership Roundtable, held in Lagos.
The theme of the Roundtable is: “Broadband, Big Data, Cyber Security, Local Content, Infrastructure Protection: Catalyst for Economic Growth and National Development”.
Represented by Dr Vincent Olatunji, the Director, eGovernment Development and Regulatory, NITDA, Pantami said the period was from 2015 and 2017.
“Records have shown that, Indigenous Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) sold 98,224 devices in 2015, 154,424 in 2016 and 355,647 in 2017.
“This is unprecedented in the history of the country and this is expected to continue to grow significantly.
“NITDA’s efforts attracted the establishment of AfriOne as an Indigenous IT company and an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in 2017.
“The agency is reviewing six other applications for the indigenous IT companies and Original Equipment Manufacturers,’’ the director-general said.
He said that with the growing pressure of globalisation, every government as well as captains of industry were charged with the burden of finding ways to ensure that their regions or jurisdictions remained competitive and were capable of fulfilling local demands.
He said that regions must look inwards to drive development, promote local innovation and production as well as play in almost all parts of the value chain.
The director-general said that the policy was put in place through the Ministry of Communications, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC).
He added that NITDA through ONC is set out to drive the development of local content through the implementation of the Regulatory Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT.