By Nnamdi Ojiego
THE Nigerian environment has been described as unfriendly and hostile to local entrepreneurs and investors who are ready to invest in the country and display their capabilities particularly, in the Information and Communications Technology, ICT sector.

This assertion was made by an indigenous IT engineer, Chief Ajibade Oke in a chat with CyberLife at his office in Lagos recently.

He said Nigerian engineers have the know-how to match their counterparts in advanced countries of the world but the Nigerian environment is not encouraging. According to him, lack of necessary infrastructure and legislation were the major hindrance to the development of ICT in the country.

“Nigerians have the capabilities but looking at how we have explored the Nigerian engineers to address the economy, it has nothing to write home about. And it is not our fault but the infrastructure itself and legislation. We have the technical know-how but the environment does not give Nigerian entrepreneurs the opportunity to actually display their capabilities”, he lamented.

Chief Oke suggested that to move the sector and indeed, the country forward, there is need to partner and collaborate with others to create jobs and empower the people.

According to him,  if the manufacturing is done abroad and the empowerment is in Nigeria, then  Nigeria has gained. “We must use what is available abroad, customise it into a Nigerian system to empower our people because,  we have a lot of unemployment in the country.

So, what the government need to do is to create a level playing ground that will make an entry point for a Nigerian to partner foreigner to develop the country using the computer avenue. that is the only way we can do it”, he opined.