FG eyes smartphone battery production

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has stated that ubiquitous internet access will play a crucial role in strengthening the country’s case to attract phone manufacturers to establish local production of smartphone batteries.

Currently, internet penetration in Africa’s most populous nation stands at 42.24 per cent, with more than 100 million people remaining digitally excluded.

Nigeria is also home to significant deposits of lithium, a highly reactive metal essential for producing energy-dense rechargeable batteries used in electronics like smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, and grid storage systems.

Speaking recently on Arise TV, the minister explained that the federal government was focusing on expanding internet access nationwide. The expansion of the internet infrastructure, particularly through the planned 90,000 km of fibre-optic cable, is expected to open new doors for technological advancements in the country.

Tijani noted that connectivity would be important, given Nigeria’s abundant lithium resources, which are crucial for producing batteries used in smartphones and other electronic devices.

He said, “We are considering that if the internet is more ubiquitous and available, we now have a strong case to have conversations with manufacturers of mobile phones that they must either manufacture locally or they must manufacture the batteries that they use locally, because, you know what, we have a good stock of lithium batteries.

“So even if they can’t manufacture the whole thing yet locally, we can enforce that they must use the batteries that we have. If we do that, that’s going to create more job opportunities for mineral resources; space factories will come into the country.”

Tijani said those are the difficult decisions the government is working on, emphasising that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is particularly focused on strengthening infrastructure.

He noted that with strong foundational infrastructure in place, Nigeria would be able to develop an economy that creates significant job opportunities for young people—an essential step for the country’s progress.