By EMEKA AGINAM

Stakeholders in the Nigerian IT industry have  faulted the planned Federal Government  imposition of 2%  tax on the values of mobile phones, computers, software, cameras, photocopiers, printing machines and CD players manufactured in the country or imported.

The current posture of imposition of tax on IT products, IT experts   noted without mincing words negates  local content policy  of the government and  by implication,   a direct reduction of already low youth employment in the country.

It would be recalled that mindful  of the need to promote local PC assembly,  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s  administration issued a directive that all MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) must patronize  local PC makers and consider foreign brands only if the local brands could not meet up with their  requirements.

Government policy was designed to help generate employment in the PC sub-sector and grow local capacity in computer assembly.

However, the  order for the tax to be known as the Copyright Levy, Vanguard Hi-Tech gathered  has already been gazetted by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation as the  modalities for its implementation were  being negotiated with the Nigeria Customs Service.

The Director-General, Nigeria Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude, was quoted in a media report as saying that the new levy would be on a broad range of products capable of being used to infringe on the copyright of products and services, including computers, mobile phones and printing machines.

Ezekude, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Aderemi Adewusi, said further that the  levy will generally  apply to such products whether they are imported into the country or they are manufactured within the shores of the nation.

“The Copyright Levy on Materials Order 2012 received the necessary approval from the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN. The levy order is applicable to all imported materials used or capable of being used to infringe copyright in a work, both imported and manufactured in the country and it is designed to compensate the right owners for the envisaged infringement.

“It is one of the commission’s ways of generating income for the government, stakeholders and the commission. This was done after due consultation with stakeholders who have expressed satisfaction and appreciation over the levy order.”, the NCC boss explained.

Reacting to the new development, the President of the Nigerian Computer Society, NCS, Prof. David Adewumi said that it negates local content agenda of the Federal Government.

“To start with, before the proposed tax regime the ongoing prices on the items under reference were high. If  the proposed  regime is enforced,  it will not encourage the patronage of locally assembled items under reference thereby being a hindrance to the current clamor for local content and by implication a direct reduction of already low youth employment in the country” he explained.

For the President of Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, Chris Uwaje,   the Copyright Levy” was  grossly misleading.

According to Uwaje who pioneered the IT Policy Document years back, the imposition of 2% tax was strange, even as he asked, what is the purpose?

However, the new policy was coming at a time when both  indigenous software and Original Equipment Manufacturers OEMs are clamoring for local patronage.

Before now,  more than seven PC makers, UNITEC, Pragmatic, Brian Integrated  Systems, Zinox, Omatek and the more recent Geniac and Veda have arrived on the scene.  Many of them  have completely disappeared from the landscape because of lack of  preference of foreign brands to local ones.

Currently, the  surviving players Beta Computers, Omatek, Zinox , Brian Integrated Systems  are only managing to keep afloat for a mix of factors.

The four players, Beta Computers, Zinox and Omatek  and Brian Integrated Systems lead the league. They dominate the share of the PC market controlled by the local PC assembly companies.

Although the  market has expanded in terms of patronage and reach that transcends private and public sectors, one thing is clear. It  has remained largely a domain of foreign players leaving a fraction of the margin for the local PC makers to contend with. For every one PC that Omatek, Zinox or Beta Computers  sell,  HP, Samsung, Toshiba , Acer, Dell  among other foreign brands sell more.

Even though the government  had adopted different  strategies like computer ownership scheme, students PC ownership scheme, Computer for All initiative,  among others promote computer ownership while broadband infrastructure was being developed, foreign brands still  control large percentage of the  market giving them a strong edge over the local players.

The last one initiative was student PCs ownership scheme in  partnership with five banks and  local computer makers including Beta Computers, Brian Integrated Systems, Zinox and Omatek “If  we build broadband infrastructure and people don’t have computers, tablets, and whatever to access it, it is going to be a waste of time. The next thing we are trying to drive is that as we build the infrastructure, we need to make sure we all have the devices.”