Considering this age of digitalization and the seemingly increasing wave of crime in Nigeria, it is proper as a telecom expert to caution you on where and what nature of phone you purchase for personal or official use. Today, a lot of people have been implicated in one criminal case or the other because of purchasing phones from the wrong source; some of such cases have led to life imprisonments. The reason for this is simple. Phones have what is called the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) which is unique for all phones; it is with this identity that the phones can be tracked. Unfortunately, today many people are using phones bought from sources that could implicate them in the near future, sources from where old phones are re-packaged and sold to them as new, the re-packaging however does not change the IMEI of such phones and this portends danger to the buyer. Before I tell you where to purchase your phones from, let me quickly point out places to avoid as much as possible in purchasing your phones:-
1. Roadside Vendors: These days, we see a lot of people ‘hawking’ phones as though phones have become sachet water. Phones especially smart phones are too sensitive an item to be purchased by the roadside. This is because of a number of reasons; they could be faulty but because of the hurry in the purchase, such faults may not be discovered at the point of purchase, they may be stolen phones, they may be fake or re-packaged phones sold to you as original or new. Phones shouldn’t be bought in a hurry no matter the urgency because the consequence will hurriedly land you into a big trouble you may not be able to handle.
2. Friends or Relatives: These days, in a bid to get “heavy phones” for meager amount, people go for second-hand phones from friends or relatives. This too is not advisable except of course if you are very sure of the authenticity of the source from where such phones were purchased. Just two days ago, a case involving the purchase of phone from a friend landed someone in police custody. A particular phone was tracked as having been stolen from a robbery scene whereas the buyer was claiming he bought the said phone from a friend, when the two persons were asked to bring the casings of their phones, the person who bought his from a friend was found to have presented a wrong casing. Trust the Nigerian Police, he’s cooling off at the station awaiting his arraignment in court.
3. Phone Villages: These days we have phone villages in place of what used to be called computer villages. These are usually clusters of shops all selling phones and their accessories. Shockingly, these too are wrong places to purchase your phones. In fact, statistics has shown that 80% of the phones stolen within a town are sold at these phone villages. Within these phones villages, there are “Computer Engineers” who are skilled in re-packaging these stolen phones and reselling them as new ones. Thus, a lot of phones sold in such spots have one issue or the other mostly security-related.
Having pointed out where not to buy your phones from, let me quickly tell you where is best and safest to buy your phone from:-
1. Telecom Service Providers: Most of the telecom service providers are into partnership with mobile phone companies. I am aware that Globacom is into such partnership with Samsung, Techno, Infinix, Huawei and Bontel; MTN, 9Mobile and Airtel are into such partnerships too in a bid to woo phone buyers into using their network on such phones. This is about the safest point to pick your phone from as phones bought here come directly from the phone factory as there are some settings customized for these telecom companies such as using a particular network gives you a particular amount of data free for a certain period of time. And their mode of sales is system controlled, making it difficult for anything fake to be sold to you in such outlets. So the next time you want to pick up a new phone, visit a Gloworld, MTN Connect, Airtel Express or 9Mobile Experience Center.
2. Mobile Phone Company Show Rooms: Most mobile companies have their show rooms located in big cities within the country. Those of you who live in places like Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Portharcourt, Calabar to mention but a few have this advantage. The advantage of buying from this kind of point is that most of them provide post-purchase services and the warranty that comes with these phones can be easily enjoyed if such phones are gotten from these points. Finally you can be sure nobody will drag your name into the mud in anyway.
3. Accredited Trade Partners of Mobile Phone Companies: A lot of the shops you see around being branded as though they were run by mobile phone companies are not really so but done in partnership with the mobile phone companies. Unfortunately, there are self acclaimed partners all over the place deceiving unsuspecting members of public. Don’t just jump into any shop and pick up a Samsung phone because the shop was branded Samsung. Some of the accredited Mobile Phone Partners are Slot Limited Nigeria, 3C Hub, Micro Station, PTV Phones, Yudala, Pointek, Affordable Phones, Mizbeach Limited, Best Mobile Stores, Parktel International and a host of others.
My problem with Nigerians is that they don’t learn from other people’s experience, they wait until the experiences of others befall them, don’t be a victim! In summary, be sure of the source of the phone you are buying else it will land you in the muddy waters.