By Emeka Aginam
While  Nigerian ICT market continues to attract foreign vendors , the National Software and Services Companies  (NASSCOM) of India, the  premier trade body and  chamber of commerce of the IT business-processing outsourcing, (BPO)  industries in India are expected in the country next week for the  2010 edition of the IT Chief Executive  Officers, (CEOs) summit.

Olufuye and Emmanuel

The summit is being  organized by the  Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN) in conjunction with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Africa Regional Secretariat.

This is part of the commitment of ITAN to retool the Nigerian ICT industry   industry for global competitiveness in the 21st century knowledge economy.

The President of ITAN,  Dr Jimson Olufuye who addressed IT journalists recently in Lagos ahead of the summit disclosed that the forum would bring  together IT CEOs from the Information  Communication Technology (ICT) industry for networking, broad synergy, capacity enhancement and strategic focus on the huge immediate and future potentials of the IT and IT_BPO industry to enable, empower and enrich the Nigerian economy.
The event which will  focus on Information Technology Enabled Services, (ITES) for business-processing outsourcing, (BPO), according to Olufuye  will have in attendance NASSCOM members including Eastern Software Systems, AES Technologies India Pvt Ltd, Agile Labs Pvt Ltd, Aujas Networks Pvt Ltd.

Others include, C1 India Pvt Ltd, Comviva  First Source Solutions Ltd, International Institute of Information Technology, Pune,  Karrox Technologies Ltd , Newgen Software Technologies Ltd
Nihilent Technologies,  Octaware Technologies, Ontrack Systems Ltd ,Oracle Financial Services Software, Payoda Technologies Pvt Ltd, QAI Global Services, R P Infosystems Pvt Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd , Tricom Information & Technology.

At the end of the Summit, according to Olufuye who is very passionate about human capacity building,  the following would have been achieved:

*Progressive development of the Nigerian internal Outsourcing businesses and industry
*Locking_in of Nigeria as the hub of IT_BPO in Sub_Saharan Africa as it meets the Indian Investors’ desire to serve Europe and America ITES ever_growing market

*Match_making Indian and Nigerian IT CEOs in a B2B for investment, partnership and networking.
*Exposure of more CEOs to the Off_shoring and Outsourcing business potentials
*Exposure of IT CEOs to critical IT funding sources and opportunities

*Improving on IT CEOs project management competencies
*Collection of important up_to_date industry data
It would recalled that  the  Chairman Local Organizing Committee, (LOC) and Council member of ITAN, Mr Amos Emmanuel had earlier disclosed that  this  year’s IT Future 2010 with the theme empowering IT CEOs   is a follow up to the series which started in 2006.

The IT CEO Summit 2010, according to him,  will be  unique as it will  for the first time bring together IT Industry CEOs in Nigeria and from India, the National Software and Services Companies of India.

“The IT CEOs in Nigeria and NASSCOM will be joined by the foremost IT Industry association in the USA, TechAmerica and PIKOM, Malaysia to boost Nigeria’s participation in the annual over US$600 billion IT BPO business. India is currently the leader in this sector earning more than 60% of the annual market value.

The synergy which is captured by the theme: Empowering CEOs for off shoring and M-outsourcing projects  is a strategy to empower the Nigerian IT CEOs in collaboration with their international counterparts to tap into the huge potential for IT-BPO growth in Nigeria.

“It is expected that one of the prides of the Nigerian IT BPO industry – the Kano ICT Park, will be showcased for investment to the cream of the IT BPO success stories in India, Malaysia and the USA among many others” he explained.

The  event, he said  is a  follow_up to the recent workshop by the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) and the World Bank aimed at growing the Nigerian Business Process Outsourcing sector with the aim of creation jobs and wealth as part of broad strategy for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals and the attainment of the Nigerian Vision 20: 2020.

Many of the international/National IT leaders that have signed on according to him,  include,  Mr Phil Bond, President TechAmerica USA, Mr Som Mittal President, NASSCOM India, Dr Jimson Olufuye, President ITAN and Vice Chairman WITSA Sub_Saharan Africa, Mr Ismail Radwan, Snr Private Sector Development Specialist, Africa Region, the World Bank, Engr Titi Omo-Ettu, President ATCON, and Mr Chris Uwaje, President ISPON.

Others include,  Prof Cleopas Angaye, DG National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Umar Bindir, Director, National Office of Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) and Dr Sola Afolabi, Director, Community Computer Centre ECOWAS Commission, among others.