Experts Reiterate Call for Indigenous Software Development

Experts and policy makers in the software sector have called for the country to engage its teeming youth population in IT related field, particularly the software sector so as to create sustainable IT ecosystem in the country

They made this call at the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) 10th annual presidential dinner night, which held at the Prest Cruise WaterFront Hotel, Lekki, Lagos.

The event themed “Having an Inclusive IT Ecosystem”, had Dr. (Mrs.) Omobola Johnson, former Minister of Communication Technology deliver a keynote address.

Dr. Yele Okeremi, President Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), while delivering his address, said that the most important ingredient for a successful information technology sector in the country is for us to train and engage our teeming youth population in IT related field, particularly the software sector so as to create sustainable IT ecosystem in the country.

He stated that the ingredient to having viable IT economy is to create sustainable IT Ecosystem using the success of the Silicon Valley as a bench mark.

He explained that a viable ecosystem should be self-sustaining where all participants create some form of value that is consumed by some other members and all players operate in a symbiotic manner.

Giving an insight into how the country could catalyze its IT ecosystem to achieve success and become self-reliant and ultimately be a net contributor to the IT ecosystem of the world, Dr Okeremi said that Nigeria that has a high propensity for technology consumption and a suitable age demographics should borrow a leaf from countries like china that catalyzed their industry on the premises of local consumption.

He explained that we need to deliberately come up with policy to encourage the mantra of producing what we consume and consuming what we produce.

According to him, “For a country like Nigeria that has a high propensity for technology consumption and a suitable age demographics, Nigeria can borrow a leaf from countries like china that catalyzed their industry on the premises of local consumption.

“In other words, the country needs to come up with a deliberate policy to encourage the mantra of producing what it consumes and consume what it produces.

“The ability to achieve this is quite simple by following the money and studying which areas the country consumes the most technology products.

“The country has every right to begin a simple policy of import substitution.

“This will ensure the practitioners in the country are automatically provided domestic market access.

Dr. (Mrs.) Omobola Johnson said that Nigeria is a bright spot for technology industry in Africa.

She noted that funds coming into the country to fund technology firms have doubled astronomically in the last three years, noting that it’s a positive factor for the industry.

Dr. Johnson noted that software development sector will play a very significant role in the development of IT ecosystem.

She called on federal government to enact policies that will make Nigeria a software developer’s hub in the country.

The former minister explained that with the right policies, the country can build army of software developers in the country.

She urged software developers to fashion out a way where there will be off takers to support and build the ecosystem in order to build thousands of developers in the country.

Dr. Johnson decried the capital flight been witnessed now in the sector, where government agencies engage the services of foreign developers at the detriment of local developers, stressing that the money taking out of the country could be used to support more developer, if the these jobs were given to local developers.