By EMEKA AGINAM

WHILE the country loses billions of naira annually to heavy patronage of foreign software by Nigerians and multinational companies operating in Nigeria, the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), has  called for firmness in software pricing in both local and foreign software.

With zero legislation hindering growth of the indigenous software industry,  the new President of ISPON,  Pius Okigbo Jr. who stated this  in Lagos  on Monday while receiving handover note from the out gone President, Chris Uwaje as the new President of the group  told IT Journalists that  local software may not  contribute   massively to the economy in terms of value creation and capacity building unless priority attention was given to local products.

Between local and foreign software:

“Tell me why the same software developed by a Nigerian living outside the country should not attract the same price with the same product developed by a Nigerian living in Nigeria? Why should Nigerians see foreign software as superior to locally developed one. Just tell me.

“What is worrisome is where there is no fairness in pricing for both local and foreign products. If a product developed abroad attracts ten million dollars,  the same software product developed locally should also attract the same amount.

Address fairness in pricing:

“Fairness in pricing should be addressed if software in Nigeria can contribute to economic growth. We cannot continue to see Nigerian products as bad compared to the ones produced outside the country. That perception must change. If there is an fairness in pricing of both local and foreign software, the economy will be protected and jobs created. “We need to protect the younger generation that will be exposed to the global market. We must encourage the young generation otherwise we will singing the same song” he explained.

Intellectual property rights:

While commending the Ministry of Communication Technology for promoting local content,  he said that  intellectual property rights in local software must be protected.”There has to be  instrument for protecting local software developed by Nigerians  We can do this through training. My drive is local content and protection of intellectual property. We believe that local content help our young talents grow. There must be local content drive either in education, agriculture, oil and and gas” he said.

To further grow the local industry, Okigbo who is passionate about software Nigeria called for review of curriculum in the Nigerian universities especially in what he described as technical writing.

Technical writing

To reeducate the the youths, he said that technical writing should be taught in the Nigerian universities as an intervention strategies to help them face the challenges ahead.

To build on Uwaje achievements:

Pledging  to build on the incredible achievements of the ISPON leadership under Uwaje, he said: “ I have to teach some youths who have already finished university technical writing. Why cannot we narrow teaching to technical writing. 90 percent  of the participants at the ISPON software competition  learn t their skills and software language  outside university walls. We must begin to retool these young people with technical writing so that they can have competitive advantage after graduation. That is what we are saying here. Our time is spent. The future belongs to the youths.  This is the time to begin as time is already running out” he explained.

In his acceptance remarks, the new President called attention to the dynamism and strength of the new NEC, observing that its configuration reflects an eclectic mix of industry leaders in software and services across economic sectors from start-ups to mature champions of the IT Industry.

Push for local content:

He declared that in furtherance of the goals of ISPON, the next two years would focus on an aggressive push for Software Nigeria emphasizing a software-centric local content agenda underpinned by a nation-wide software capacity-building initiative to establish the industry as the engine of Nigeria’s New Economy. For Uwaje in his remarks after handover note, he said that software Nigeria may not grow unless attention is paid to local content.

He noted that ISPON was ready to challenge anybody who faults local software in international debate in television. According to him, despite local content Act of 2010, lack of national software strategy and zero legislation have remained a barrier to the patronage of indigenous software.

Calls for  national software commission.

While revisiting the call for the national software commission, the Oracle of the Nigerian IT industry warned on dangers of Nigeria been in the digital colony of nations of the world. “We are already a software colony at the Oil, Gas, Financial and Telecommunications levels. The nation has totally misunderstood and misplaced the conceptual philosophy and development strategy of Information Technology – with particular reference to Software origination, engineering and local knowledge patronage for nation building & survivability.

“The world now lives in a software-first society,but our current vision is a Telecoms-first centric nation. Fact is, we can not succeed with that vision in building a competitive and progressive nation of the 21st Century; therefore, there is an urgent need for change.