25,000 MDAs to Use Nigerian Developed Software – ISPON President

Software developed by local companies can serve the diverse needs of over 25,000 ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs] across the three tiers of government.

So, declared Pius Okigbo Jnr., ‎president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria [ISPON], in a recent interview.
 
He said there are “over 20,000 and 25,000 MDAs from all tiers of government that require software solution in just about everything. What does that tell you? It means you can have local software companies constantly writing software till kingdom come to address everything possible in different sectors, and that can only translate to huge billions of naira”.
 
The challenge facing the Nigerian software industry, he explained, is that locally developed solutions are lowly priced simply because they are made in Nigeria. “There is nothing we cannot write in software programs but nobody is ready to trust us and pay us huge amounts of money as to make us bigger players in Nigeria and this is a big tragedy”.
 
He added that, “We have developed some good solutions that foreign solutions cannot match. Foreign software became the humongous behemoths they have become because of huge patronage. They all have their humble beginnings”.
 
According to him, the foreign software companies developed through the encouragement of their home governments. That was how the likes of SAP, Microsoft and Oracle have become local and global household names.
 
“Nigerian software companies need similar support from the government and the private sector players. I still maintain today that there is no foreign Human Resources (HR) software system that is better than the locally-developed HR package.‎
 
“Our own processes are different from their own processes. We believe that it is a gradual process and we believe that, through continuous engagements, we would achieve understanding of government to support our software industry to be able to create wealth and move the government agenda of economic development forward”, he said.
 
On the issue of government patronising foreign software, he said the use of foreign solutions from places such as India should not happen if we had got our acts right before now. “If you do not encourage companies like SystemSpecs and other indigenous IT companies in Nigeria, what then are you saying?”
 
Concerning SystemSpecs and the Treasury Single Account [TSA], he said the National Assembly has a classic problem of trying to use laws that are not clearly defined to make it seem as if SystemSpecs has done something fraudulent. “That is very unfortunate. It is as if you are saying how can a company, a local company for that matter, make that kind of money?”
 
He explained that the Remita electronic payment platform has been working and providing services to organisations and governments over the years. It is now that the MDAs have to remit funds through Remita in line with the TSA policy of government, that the lawmakers are raising eyebrows.
 
“It is pure ignorance and fear. We have Bill Gates and other software billionaires that are making all the money all over the world on services. Have they committed any crime? So, Remita didn’t commit any crime. SystemSpecs hasn’t done anything illegal. I think it is a tragedy to have a National Assembly that is so focused on one transaction, an action that can undermine the success of an industry at large, and I find it very unfortunate”, he said.
 
Okigbo spoke at the annual ISPON President’s Dinner held at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos. ‎