Nigeria Imports 40m Sim Cards Annually – ICT Minister

40 million slim cards are being imported annually into Nigeria, Mrs Omobola Johnson, Minister for Information and Communication Technology, has said.
Johnson made this disclosure while speaking at the Monthly Breakfast Meeting of the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce in Lagos on Thursday.
 “Forty million sim cards are being imported annually in Nigeria and seventy million are presently in circulation.
“If we continue to import sim cards, there would be 500 million sim cards imported into Nigeria by 2015.

40 million slim cards are being imported annually into Nigeria, Mrs Omobola Johnson, Minister for Information and Communication Technology, has said.
Johnson made this disclosure while speaking at the Monthly Breakfast Meeting of the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce in Lagos on Thursday.
 “Forty million sim cards are being imported annually in Nigeria and seventy million are presently in circulation.
“If we continue to import sim cards, there would be 500 million sim cards imported into Nigeria by 2015.
 “It is one of our targets that we should discourage importation as much as possible and this is why we are launching incubation centres very soon,” she said.
 Johnson said that the high cost of importing sim cards could be reduced by creating incubation centres, adding that N70 billion was spent on information and communication technology alone in 2012.
 “One of the ICT incubation centres will be launched in Lagos tomorrow and the one in Tinapa will be launched in May.
“The incubation centre is set to provide about 25 new business ventures which will further harness the skills of Nigerians for local content production.
“We are also working with some international organisations like IBM and Nokia to develop ICT skills in about 25,000 students over a period of years,” she said.
 Johnson said that the first phone assembly plant would be inaugurated in the country before the end of 2013.
 “We are working hard to ensure that the gap between having computer certifications and getting jobs would be closed soon.
“Also, it is one of our targets that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would all have effective websites and portals by 2015.
“With this, government agencies would be able to respond to enquiries and data requests from Nigerians in line with the Freedom of Information Act,” she said.