Technicians Decry Impact Of Forex Scarcity On Spare Parts

The Association of Mobile Communication Device Technicians of Nigeria (AMCODET) has expressed concern over the scarcity of Foreign Exchange (Forex) which keeps increasing the cost of spare parts in the country.

AMCODET President, Kehinde Apara, during an interview in Lagos on Monday, told newsmen that scarcity of forex had made business unpleasant for operators.

“The scarcity of foreign exchange has made phone spare parts expensive."

“Most of the spare parts we use are imported into the country and they are now expensive due to the exchange rate."

“It is extremely difficult for some potential customers to buy new screens or other spare parts for their phones. This has effects on the growth of our business,” Apara said.

He urged the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to hasten up work on the Device Management System (DMS) with the interface that would accommodate AMCODET members to check if the phone brought for repair or unlock had been reported stolen or not.

“Owing to incessant stealing of mobile phones and illegal arrest of our members, we raised AMCODET memo on-device security and increase in government internally generated revenue through smart device repairs and maintenance,"

“The memo was approved by the National Council on Communications Technology held in Katsina in 2017,"

“We have submitted a sample of our proposed national mobile communication device unlocking safety permit to the Nigeria Police Headquarters Abuja,"

”We did a presentation on the same subject. We also submitted the same to the National Assembly, NCC and NITDA just to mention a few,"

“We are ready to join hands with the government to sanitise the digital sector of Nigeria’s economy," he said.

Apara said that the government needed to hasten up on device International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEIs) registration to combat security challenges and to stop the massive influx of fake phones and spare parts into the Nigerian market.

“In order to promote the digital identity of all Nigerians, the Introduction of IMEI registration must be encouraged by the government and all the players in the Information Technology industry,’’ he said.