By Nnamdi Ojiego
For Nigerians to be relevant in today’s society and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the country’s economy, there is an urgent need for them to avail themselves of the numerous Information and Communications Technology, ICT training opportunities being provided by IT training institutes across the country.

This was the view of Mr Salman Akorede, an IT expert and Managing Consultant at InfoTech Risks Security Limited.
He said this has become necessary because, many Nigerians lacked the required IT exposures and awareness to effectively carry out their tasks.

According to him, lack of IT awareness in doing businesses has made most people to perform below expectations in their assigned duties. “Information and Communication Technology has become part of business activities and those who lack the necessary IT training can never find their bearing in today’s world.

Today, most organisations are moving towards IT- enabled transactions, which include e-commerce and online transactions”, he said while stressing that training is one of the very powerful tools or medium to make people aware of everything that they do and the security implications of what they do.

Mr Akorede, who was speaking to Vanguard Hi-tech in his office at Magodo, Lagos said he ventured into IT from financial and accounting profession because of the kind of exposure he got while working in the United States of America and because, IT is gradually taking over the basic tasks in virtually all the establishments.

He disclosed that with his wide knowledge and experiences acquired over the years while working for various organisations in the US, that his company was now better positioned to organise and train the people let them be aware of the approaches and methodologies of doing business with IT, as well as making sure that there was adequate security that would help them preserve and maintain the integrity, confidentiality  and sensitivity of their data. “So, by training, and by offering services in those areas, we are able to help organisations and individuals to move their businesses forward. .

The IT consultant, who specialises in security and risks management however, condemned the attitude of some big organisations who do not always see the need to implement safety and security measures except there was a regulatory requirement from regulatory agencies mandating them to do so or be sanctioned.

According to him, these organisations know the operational benefits of implementing such controls and queried what was the value of using IT tools that expose users to significant risk by establishments without them doing anything about the risk.

He expressed optimism that with time, the awareness would improve and many organisations will embrace these security measures. Mr Akorede called on the government to provide enable environment that would help IT companies to move closer to the level in which the global community has attained, even as he said that Nigeria, as part of the global market will not operate in isolation.

He also called on Nigerians to make use of professionals to protect themselves from cyber criminals, stressing that there are a lot of IT experts with the necessary expertises to help them protect their data from loss, which he said InfoTech Risks Security Limited can do for any organisation and individuals irrespective what they do.