More indigenous professionals in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Nigeria have continued to decry the observed negligence and over preference to foreign software at the detriment of highly innovative Nigerian youths who have cutting-edge intelligence in developing tailored software.
Speaking in Lagos recently at the programme, former President of Institute of Software Providers of Nigeria (ISPON) and Director-General, Delta State Innovation Hub, Mr Chris Uwaje said “Today, our innovation potential is weakened by inadequate local patronage by government and the wedge of global financial aid”.
“It is therefore time to restore trust in the ability and audacity of software applications developed in Nigeria, by Nigerians wherever they may be anywhere in the world. In my professional assessment, the cumulative potentials of ICT Solutions, processes and services currently developed and supported by Nigerians all over the world is worth over 200billlion USD – including unaccounted patents and Intellectual Property, IP, missing in digital action.
“Indeed, to avoid emerging catastrophe in Nigeria’s digital future, rethinking our national ICT strategy – beyond local content in Oil & Gas, has become a matter of topmost urgency, Uwaje declared.
He queried “If Nigerian companies domicile local data in foreign lands, will Nigeria be right to compel them to reroute the huge data in their possession?
“Current and future mathematics teaches us that data is and remains the ultimate currency and centre of life, human advancement and survivability.
According to him, “All digital players in the world are searching for data. Nigeria requires and should build a local cloud to house her data. Any nation which allows her critical data to be controlled by outsiders will pay dearly within the context of her sustainable development and may indeed not recover from the trauma.
“Data of listed public companies belongs to the shareholders – period! So, corporate entities must be made to comply with that principle, because the reusable opportunities of data are far larger than the disclosed revenue at the trading floor.
On how can Nigeria be part of the 4th industrial revolution, Uwaje, who looked at the question from the angle of ‘4th Data Revolution rather than industrial revolution,’ recalled that “The origin of man had always been based on data, Information and knowledge-of-things distilled and extracted into Intelligence-of-Things, IoT”.
Continuing, he argued that “For the avoidance of doubt, all the answers we have been searching for driving our sustainable development over the past 60 years have always resided in our skilled human resources and not on financial aids”.
“For example, with the Treasury Single Account (TSA), and other strategic ICT solutions and services delivered to Nigeria by Nigerians, the nation has indeed arrived at knowledge export and support services to many parts of the world.
“This is why the promotion of inter-generational knowledge solutions – with particular reference to harnessing the National ICT Ecosystem should be our core strategic imperative. Numerous evidences abound and vividly illustrate why this is the wisdom roadmap to our collective destiny and prosperity.
Uwaje declared that “In my professional assessment, the cumulative potentials of ICT Solutions and services currently developed and supported by Nigerians all over the world is worth over 200billlion USD – including unaccounted patents and IP missing in digital action.
He summed up his arguments by averring that “Smarter countries have realised that the core interface to ensuring maximum results reside in making ICT key driving force and critical linkage for achieving improved GDP, national security, global competitiveness and national survivability, plus youths’ creative intelligence”.
