Device Checker: Nigeria introduces app to simplify phone verification

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has developed a mobile application that allows authorised industry stakeholders to scan phones’ International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers and upload device information to its verification platform. The regulator is stepping up efforts to enforce equipment approval requirements.

The commission announced the development at a media briefing on Thursday when it said the application is designed to simplify compliance for manufacturers, importers, distributors and phone dealers.

The app forms part of the NCC’s Device Checker initiative, which allows consumers to check whether devices have received regulatory approval before purchase. The commission says the wider platform is intended to help curb the circulation of counterfeit, cloned, unauthorised and other non-compliant devices in Nigeria.

TechCabal’s analysis of the device verification system on October 20, 2026, had examined how the country’s complex phone distribution network could complicate enforcement. Devices move through manufacturers, major importers, regional distributors and smaller retailers before reaching consumers, making it difficult to establish responsibility when a device fails regulatory checks.

The new application provides an additional tool for collecting device information across this chain.

The Commission says its “user-friendly” Device Checker application “enables authorised stakeholders to quickly scan device IMEIs and upload information directly to the platform.”

In practice, the app is intended to improve efficiency and ease compliance for authorised stakeholders. This gives the commission a way to collect device information from businesses across the supply chain and check compliance with its Type Approval requirements.

The regulator also reported progress in licensing and regularising phone dealers in Kano State, alongside sensitisation engagements with importers and other industry participants in Lagos and elsewhere.

The real measure is whether the app can help the regulator trace non-compliant phones back through the supply chain.

Source: TechCabal (Africa)