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High Costs Prevents Nigerian Consumers From Upgrading Their Smartphones As They Hold Onto Older Models
High costs are stopping many Nigerians from buying new smartphones. Instead, they are holding onto their old phones longer. This is happening because prices for new phones have gone up a lot, and the Nigerian currency, the naira, has lost much of its value.
In 2023, Nigeria’s government made a big change to the naira, making it worth much less compared to other currencies. By 2024, the naira had lost over 70% of its value. This means that things imported from other countries, like smartphones, now cost much more in naira.
At Lagos’ Computer Village, one of the biggest places to buy electronics in Nigeria, sellers say that the price of even basic smartphones has almost doubled in the past year. Because of this, many people are choosing to fix their old phones instead of buying new ones. Others are buying used phones to save money.
A development expert, Iliyas Aliyu, said that people are being careful with their money because they don’t have much to spend. He explained that when people stop buying new phones, it can hurt other parts of the economy too, like online shopping and the country’s overall business growth.
Between 2019 and 2023, Nigeria spent nearly $4 billion on importing phones, mostly from China. But recently, phone sales have slowed down a lot because of the rising prices and the weak naira. Williams Ideh, a phone seller, said that fewer people are upgrading to the latest phones like they used to. Now, people only buy new phones when they really need to, not just for fun or luxury.
A phone repair worker in Lagos said more customers come to fix broken screens or replace batteries instead of buying new phones. Blessing Osagie, who works at a bank, said she has been using her Nokia phone for three years. She said, “It’s not that I can’t buy a new phone, but the prices are too high. My phone still works fine, so I’m keeping it.”
Nigeria is still the biggest phone market in Africa, with about 14% of all phones sold on the continent. Companies like Transsion, which makes Tecno, Infinix, and Itel phones, control a big part of the market. To help people afford phones, some companies offer payment plans where buyers can pay in small amounts over time. These plans are becoming popular because they make it easier for people to buy phones without paying a lot of money all at once.
Ebere Okoro, a phone seller, said these payment plans help spread the cost, but many people still find the prices too high and decide not to buy.
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