Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), has restated the institute's commitment to developing a national software strategy for Nigeria, due to the importance of software innovation.
Olorogun James Emadoye, president of ISPON, who stated this said that the activities around software development are central to global trade and the generation of foreign exchange for Nigeria, said such important activities would be further buttressed at the ISPON President Dinner 2018, which holds tomorrow Friday in Lagos.
Emmanuel Ekuwem
"The ISPON President Dinner, which is credited as historic for many significant reasons, will also recognise Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, who will be having his first keynote outing in ICT industry, after his appointment as the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government. The dinner is also packaged to honour late Simeon Chijioke Agu, the founding president of ISPON," Emadoye said.
According to him, "As part of the preparation to celebrate its 20th anniversary come 2019, the National Executive Council of ISPON at her recent NEC meeting rose with a unanimous decision to honour Senator Liyel Imoke, the immediate past Governor of Cross River State, with the conferment of distinguished Fellow of ISPON (FSP Honorary) in recognition of his unparallel achievement for the promotion of software engineering development in Nigeria."
"Indeed, it is safe to state that more than any governor who served in the last two decades, none can match the visionary contributions of Senator Liyel Imoke in the information and communication technology (ICT) domain," Emadoye said.
Highlighting ISPON's strategy for software development in Nigeria, Emadoye said body rolled out strategies for the establishment of software development clubs in Nigerian universities as a foundation for building the collaborative communities and connections to the larger stakeholder ecosystem that are pivotal to the emergence of a sustainable knowledge culture and capability for software development.
"At the last count, more than 32 universities have either been registered or applied for registration. The ISPON national software development mission is informed by the strategic imperative to anchor Nigeria's aspirations for global competitiveness in the knowledge economy on building capacity in knowledge industries such as software.
With 70 per cent of Nigeria's population under 30 years of age, ISPON believes that the spirit of the vision of her founding fathers is realisable only by accelerated efforts to build and unlock the innovation capabilities of our youth, who have propelled Nigeria over just four years to becoming the 10th largest internet user base in the world," he said.
Emadoye added that for development policy makers and entrepreneurs, it is hard to resist harnessing and expending software capacity to create massive employment with a critical focus to building an export industry. "There is an invisible Developers Valley out here in Nigeria. The Developers' Valley is a conceptual model to enhance larger participation and convergence of emerging software developers by pooling them together and encouraging them to share knowledge and resources with each other and consequently address vital economic issues," he said.
