By Emmanuel Elebeke

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been described as the only viable tool through which Nigeria could move out of the current global economy meltdown.  The National President, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem stated this while announcing the opening of the 2009 COMBIT Africa and exhibition to be held  in Lagoon Restaurant, Lagos.

He said the current global social and economic challenges facing the country will be  addressed  only if Nigeria will employ  a combination of emerging technologies in the technology world.

According to the renowned technology expert, the improved  lifestyle of people through technology inventions has shown that technology had immensely shaped the future of mankind and helped address major global challenges.

Ekuwem said in a bid to aid recovery of the global economy, there is the tendency for human race to resist the harsh situation, leading to heavy investment on ICT tools and programmes by the developed countries and said there is need for Africa and Nigeria in particular to look out way out through massive investment on ICT. This he said holds the key to the survival of Nigeria from its present economic crisis, high unemployment rate and underdevelopment.

According to him, it is logical to say that Information and communication technology is the foundation and pivot        the numerous developmental challenges facing Nigeria and Africa in general will be addressed.
“ICT is the pivot to moving out from this situation of economic mess we are today. Through COMBIT we are providing some of the ammuniins to to Nigeria to be able to use ICT to survive the present bad economic situation.” he said.

With the theme: Leveraging on information and communications technologies to survive and thrive through a recession”, Ekuwem said special consideration would be given to local content development with particular focus on how best to achieve optimum result with the available ubiquitous bandwidth services in the country.

“We want to start talking on content, now we have bandwidth services in Nigeria and how to use it to connect the rest of the country.”
According to him, some resource persons will at the event deliver papers on how best to utilize ICT tools to achieve better result and improve human life. He said  the three days event would be used as a platform to create leverage on ICT to achieve optimum result in the prostrate economy.

Ekuwem who lamented the poor utilization of the ubiquitous  ICT tools and youth empowerment in the country said the absent of the youth in any adventure will amount to nothing and lack of  sustainability, adding that the primary aim of the programme is to make it an ICT premier event in the African continent.

On the expectations from the programme, the Chairman of aitec africa, official sponsor of the programme, Sean Moroney said skills are in short supply in Nigeria, hence the need to bring people to share from the pressure through COMBIT.

“The long term expectation of COMBIT is to be the premier of ICT events for Africa. We have got sufficient support to make it viable not only in West Africa but also in Africa wide. I think, now the economy is liberalize it is time to take the advantage of it through programmes like COMBIT,” he said.

According to Ekuwem, the minister of information and technology, Professor Dora Akunyili will to deliver the opening address at the event and the executive Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communication Commission, Engineer, Ernest Ndukwe and  the Director general of Nigerian IT development agency (NITDA), Professor Cleopas Angaye will present  the first and second  keynote addresses respectively. Other resource personalities expected to deliver papers at the event include: President, Nigeria Computer Society, Professor Charles Uwadia, Chairman, Association of Telecommunication operators of Nigeria,  Engineer Gbenga Adebayo and President, Nigeria Internet Group, Lanre Ajayi  among others.