By Nnamdi Ojiego
LOW computer literacy and poor performance in computer subjects examinations by Nigerian students has become a source of concern to IT stakeholders.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Computers, an indigenous computer manufacturing company, Mr. Ciri Monigod, while lamenting the ugly trend said there was need to raise the level of computer literacy in schools across the country to ensure a brighter future for the leaders of tomorrow.

According to him,  the globe has become a smaller community with the advent of computers which are  the key to a whole new world, adding that the children have to be trained and brought up in a way that they would be able to compete favourably in the new world.

Mr Monigod was speaking during the delivery of some new hybrid computer systems to Goodwill College, Eyita, Ikorodu area of Lagos State by Mountain Computers recently. He said with the availability of such computer systems in schools, the teaching staff will be motivated to give their best.

He said a vibrant nation that has adequate manpower begins from the school where future leaders are trained. “So if you are training people with ill equipped facilities, they will not be competent to handle the future. But if you provide the basics that will enable them compete favourably with their peers in other developed countries, then there is no need sending them to other countries for training”, the computer expert stated.

Speaking further, Mr Monigod noted that the future of any institution depends on the people behind it, and called on schools to endeavour to get the best for the kids in their care, and avoid purchasing substandard products. He said in attempt to cut corners and save cost, many Nigerians, and institutions including schools now go for second hand computers, popularly known as tokunbo.

According to him, such products emit dangerous fumes which are harmful to the health of the people because, they have exceeded their expiry period.

He however, commended the management of Goodwill Schools for taken the lead in acquiring quality made-in-Nigeria computers, saying that move has made the school’s library one of the best on the African continent.