Two major mobile phone manufacturers, Mi-Fone and Ghanas RLG, will begin producing handsets in Nigeria by Q4 2013, according to the Nigerian government
The disclosure was made recently by Nigeria’s minister of communication technology, Omobola Johnson, as she presented the mid-term review of her ministry's achievements at a ministerial meeting in Abuja.
"RLG Communication is setting up a US$20mn handset, PC, tablet manufacturing factory in Osun State, to commence production in July 2013," Johnson was quoted as saying by the News Agency of Nigeria.
"RLG is also providing customised ICT training to Osun State youths. Mi-Fone, a company that is active in 14 other African countries, is presently setting up a US$30mn handset factory, and we expect production to start in 2013."
The programme's purpose, according to Johnson, is to increase local content in Nigeria’s ICT industry and reduce the dominance of international companies.
She added that the ministry had launched a Lagos IT Incubation Centre in April of this year and a Cross-River unit is scheduled to be launched in July.
“We will have at least one of the centres in every geo-political zone by 2015,” said Johnson. "My ministry will continue to work with training partners to improve locally available training and certification offerings from Cisco, Huawei, IBM and Nokia, among others."
