The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has developed a cell utility that permits authorised trade stakeholders to scan telephones’ International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers and add machine info to its verification platform. The regulator is stepping up efforts to implement gear approval necessities.
The fee introduced the event at a media briefing on Thursday when it stated the appliance is designed to simplify compliance for producers, importers, distributors and telephone sellers.
The app kinds a part of the NCC’s Device Checker initiative, which permits customers to examine whether or not units have obtained regulatory approval earlier than buy. The fee says the broader platform is meant to assist curb the circulation of counterfeit, cloned, unauthorised and different non-compliant units in Nigeria.
TechCabal’s analysis of the machine verification system on October 20, 2026, had examined how the nation’s complicated telephone distribution community might complicate enforcement. Devices transfer by way of producers, main importers, regional distributors and smaller retailers earlier than reaching customers, making it troublesome to determine duty when a tool fails regulatory checks.
The new utility supplies an extra device for gathering machine info throughout this chain.
The Commission says its “user-friendly” Device Checker utility “enables authorised stakeholders to quickly scan device IMEIs and upload information directly to the platform.”
In observe, the app is meant to enhance effectivity and ease compliance for authorised stakeholders. This provides the fee a technique to acquire machine info from companies throughout the availability chain and examine compliance with its Type Approval necessities.
The regulator additionally reported progress in licensing and regularising telephone sellers in Kano State, alongside sensitisation engagements with importers and different trade members in Lagos and elsewhere.
The actual measure is whether or not the app can assist the regulator hint non-compliant telephones again by way of the availability chain.
