A Nigerian company -E.F. Network Ltd, has developed a mobile application that can disable a device for thieves, to stop the theft or resale of mobile phones and other devices in the country.
Ameh Ochojila, the company’s public relations officer, said this in a statement Tuesday in Abuja.
Ochojila said that the application called “ephonetaxi” will help provide a solution to the growing number of stolen phones in the country and around the world.
“The ‘ephonetaxi’ application helps to block anyone who is not authorized to use the phone, making it unusable and unsellable,” he said.
According to him, the app is designed to protect phone owners and the information stored on their phones from being compromised in the event of theft.
“The application helps to retrieve and send the user’s stored content to their email.
“It also locks the phone, prevents unauthorized access to stored images, videos, messages or contacts of the phone owner.
“The app alerts the phone owner of any SIM card changes, monitors and tracks the phone’s location, including taking pictures of criminals in possession of the phone and sending the images to the owner’s email address “, He said.
Ochojila added: “The owner can do all of this remotely even though the phone is lost or stolen.
“Once the owner locks a phone remotely, buying it will be a simple waste of money.”
The company’s technical manager, Mr. Kelvin Raymond, said that the application could also be used to track hijackers, as it can reveal the real-time location of mobile phones.
Mr. Gideon Egbuchulam, president of the company, said that the application was one of the applications designed by the company to meet the technical and software needs of Nigerians.
Egbuchulam said the company had opened an incubation center in Abuja where it planned to hire bright young Nigerian information technology (IT) professionals.
“With an enabling environment, young Nigerians will bring Nigeria to the next Silicon Valley in Africa.
“Almost every giant technology company in the world is interested in the Nigerian market and that is the reason why our company is hiring more than 1000 people by the end of 2020 to support talented young people,” he said.
The Nigerian News Agency (NAN) reports that available data showed that in 2016 alone, more than 400,000 phones were stolen in the UK, with a good number of them sent overseas for resale.
The data also showed that many of the stolen phones were first sold to criminal gangs who tried to access them to obtain information that could be used to hack into their owners’ bank accounts, before selling them to end users (NANs).
ngr.com
