Traders in Computer village are launching a database for tracking stolen phones

folarin okunola

June 29, 2017 5:58 PM

The Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) has partnered with an unnamed software company to develop a web portal that tracks stolen phones.

Computer Village, the largest ICT market in Africa.

The

However, with the notoriety of solving every phone-related (and PC-related) problem you can think of also comes the famous criminal elements. So many stories of people buying stolen or fake phones have come out of many Computer Village sojourns over the years.

That is why the Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN), a trade association of Computer Village traders, has partnered with an unnamed software company to develop a web portal that tracks stolen phones.

While that does sound like a great idea, there are limitations against its success off the bat. For something like this to work, there would have to be a comprehensive database of mobile devices coming into the country. There also has to be a collective record of phones sold (to whom, when, where) and stolen phones would have to be reported.

And that is just for starters.

ALSO READ: Some shops have been demolished at Nigeria's most popular ICT market

A lot of the devices sold at Computer Village are not legally/officially registered devices and the sale of these devices are not regulated for the most part. If traders/sellers cannot be made to sell registered devices (which can be tracked) then can a unified database really solve anything?

There is also the lack of a central database in Nigeria. Yes, Nigerians have signed up for Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) but that is only limited to banked consumers (and over 75% of Nigerians are not banked). The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) does not have a unified database of telecom consumers and the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) does not possess any similar data trove either.

While the CAPDAN initiative comes from a good place (and the problem does need to be solved), it is hard to see how it is going to work. But what it does do is put the spotlight on Nigeria’s lack (and need) of a centralized database through which pertinent data and preemptive measures can be taken.

How do you think CAPDAN can make its phone theft tracking platform work? Do you have any ideas on how the government and the private sector can work together to develop a unified database of information for Nigeria?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

folarin okunola