By Olaleke ASHAFA
Association of Communication Device Technicians of Nigeria (AMCODET), on Monday urged the Federal Government to establish technology training centres for mobile device technicians to boost local content production and consumption in the country.
The National President of AMCODET, Mr Apara Ige made the call in Abuja.
According to Ige, Nigeria have more than10 million brands and models of mobile phones, devices with different kinds of technology to their production.
He also said that the advent of mobile phones was over 16 years and the country was due to have mobile devices produced in the country.
“In Nigeria today, we have more than 10 million brands of different kinds of mobile phones and the technology behind one kind of phone in terms of repairs is different from another, so also the cost of repairs.
“When a particular mobile phone product was manufactured, we were not there and the company has never called the Nigerian technicians for training.
“When the consumer buys the phone and it develops a fault, they end up looking for technicians to fix it and when the technician goes wrong, the customer ends up holding the technician responsible.
“Assuming some of these mobile phone companies have trained our technicians, they will be able to professionally handle some problems on the mobile device.
“We have to be upgrading our technology which is why the training centres come in because different brands come into the country every year,” he said.
He acknowledged that Nigerians were `die hard’ people with learning skills and could go to any length to unravel the technology behind any product, which had made them stand out in terms of mobile phone repairs.
Ige said that the government could serve as the intermediary between mobile phone companies and technicians for the transfer of knowledge on the technology of mobile phones.
“What technicians in the country need is the technology behind these technologies, then give them the enabling environment and Nigerians will turn the sector around because Nigerians are intelligent.
“The country has more than 180 million people with a huge number of it using mobile phones and they require trained technicians to equal the number of devices used.
He, however, decried that they had presented the issue to relevant agencies of government but there was no positive response to their request.
He alleged that the lack of attention to technicians could mean that they were not considered as a contributing arm to the development of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
Ige called on the National Assembly to grant their request and establish technology training centres for technicians in the country.
The national president also called for the empowerment of technicians to be able to regulate activities in the sector and ensure professionalism that would add value to it.
“For instance, if someone steals a phone now, within two hours of the phone missing, no matter the security embedded on it, it can be wiped out because the person that took it needs money.
“We wish to regulate the industry because it will add value to the industry, it will also save Nigeria from loss of vital information.
“We know that when a mobile phone is missing, the information is important to the owner, it can enable us to recover the information.
“If we are empowered to regulate the industry, every practitioner in the industry will know that it is an offence to remove someone’s information on a phone without the owner’s consent.’’
According to Ige, the industry needs government’s attention because there are about 10 million mobile phone technicians in the country owing to the lucrative nature of the job.
