By nnamdi ojiego

Unfriendly government policies have been described as major setbacks to the growth and development of Information and Communications Technology, ICT.

The Chief Executive Officer of Supadet Holdings Limited, Mr Supo Adetunji who revealed this to Vanguard Hi-tech in Lagos said the country has a lot of brains to develop the ICT industry but the attitude of government towards creating a conducive and a level playing ground was not encouraging.

Said he; “ we have a lot of brains but the policies govt is putting in place are not friendly. If you are not encouraging local production but promoting importation, then we are ruining ourselves. The govt policies are not liberal, transparent and conducive enough that is affecting local investors and by extension, the entire economy.”

He said the importance ICT to the growth of Nigeria economy could not be underscored, as it has oiled the growth of almost all sectors of the economy. According to him, the solution to the epileptic power and security challenges lied in information technology.

Adetunji said though, power sector has not adequately deployed IT in its operations, that it was still through ICT that the country was able to get things like solar power. In addition, he disclosed that transportation sector lacked any form of ICT.

“With my IT training, I was able to see clearly that transportation industry extremely lacks any form of ICT. Our transportation industry is zero when it comes to IT. The service industry is lacking as well. With ICT, you can do a lot of planning and projecting because, information is key to knowledge, communication is essential, while technology is the height of it.