Nigerians seeking Starlink internet hardware are facing dismay as third-party vendors escalate prices to N1 million for the complete kit. Despite a still available price of N400,000 on the company’s website, vendors at Lagos’ Computer Village, a popular electronics market, reported a surge from N300,000 in November to N1.3 million in January.<\/p>\n
Concerns arise as these vendors are known to buy kits in bulk and resell them at inflated prices. The situation prompted reactions on social media, with one member of Computer Village expressing surprise at the drastic price increase within two months. The user suggested that neighboring countries’ increased demand might have contributed to the shortage.<\/p>\n
As of November 2023, Starlink was sold for N299,000, and the recent surge is suspected to be a result of traders capitalizing on the foreign exchange crisis and persistent inflationary pressures.<\/p>\n
There are comparisons to the pandemic period when face masks were sold for N1,000, only to drop to N50 afterward. The current price hike in Starlink, according to social media commentator Kelvin Odanz, may not be entirely unexpected given the prevailing economic conditions.<\/p>\n
Starlink allowed payments in the local currency, the naira, in July 2023, aiming to mitigate exposure to foreign currency challenges and maintain affordability. However, despite prohibiting the resale of its technology, vendors continue to sell kits at exorbitant prices. They argue that bulk importation reduces waiting times and makes the service readily available.<\/p>\n
Orders from the official website typically take 1-2 weeks for delivery, and bulk purchases are restricted. However, vendors circumvent this limitation by using multiple accounts to acquire hardware, flouting Starlink’s terms of purchase. The situation underscores challenges in ensuring fair pricing and accessibility amid high demand for innovative technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerians seeking Starlink internet hardware are facing dismay as third-party vendors escalate prices to N1 million for the complete kit. Despite a still available price of N400,000 on the company’s website, vendors at Lagos’ Computer Village, a popular electronics market, reported a surge from N300,000 in November to N1.3 million in January. Concerns arise as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13401,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13395\/revisions\/13401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}