By adekunle adekoya & emeka aginam

Mr. Chris uwaje, President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Odo Offiong, representing Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke, Mrs Karin Uwaje

By the time the 2011 Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, Presidential Dinner held in Lagos last week Friday was drawing to a close, stakeholders at the occasion were worried about poor attention paid to indigenous software products, saying that building commensurate capacities for the expansion of the software workforce is a fundamental requirement and imperative for re-tooling Nigeria’s workforce for digital opportunities.

However, IT practitioners at the event also noted that for Nigeria to produce a large pool of software knowledge innovators and developers, capable of producing software solutions and services that meet international standards, applying best practices and contributing to the advancement of global software engineering research, public and private sector support are very imperative.

Speaker after speaker at the event agreed that Nigeria has creative talents that have the capacity to produce the best software product in the global competitiveness. For Nigeria to leverage on software development for economic development and face the challenge of information age through its creative workforce, according to the participants, all hands must be on deck:

While the participants believe that future of Nigeria lies in software incubation, ISPON President, Chris Uwaje said it is essential for the nation to address the success pathways – where dynamic strategic capacity building is at the core of the challenge.

“Without any fear of contradiction, Nigeria is faced with a monumental challenge on how to structure, configure and reposition information technology and especially software in Nigeria, as a prime industry for nation building and global competitiveness. We must therefore come to terms with solutions on how to constructively engage the multidisciplinary challenges of the strongly emerging information society – especially now that the recent INEC electronic registration process has grossly exposed and revealed our national ignorance on critical software development processes, deployment strategies and other IT-related matters.

“As we all know, oil and gas constitutes about 97% of total federal revenue, and that 40% of this oil and gas is exported to North America, 23% to Europe and16% to the Far East Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and China. “However, the significant hidden fact from the above is that Application Software, solutions and services constitute a greater percentage of the deliverables and human resources skill-sets required to actualize the whole activity life cycle in the oil and gas industry — which today represents a huge chunk of the global energy requirement,” Uwaje said.

According to him, software workforce is a fundamental requirement for developing National e-Knowledge and e-Government Strategies, engaging Cybercrime and Cybersecurity issues, building National Software Engineering Skill-Sets Capacity, patronage and support for Indigenous Software consumption, among others.

Chairman of the occasion, the Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, who was represented by Mr. Odo Effiong, Head of ICT of the Cross River State Government in his keynote address noted with optimism that Nigerian workforce has all it takes to develop software application that that can be exported for foreign earnings.

“We have the talents. We have the resources. We have the market and its opportunities. This is the time to sell our products to the international market. Let us give no excuse as time is running out,” he said.

According to him, to become a lead source and provider for world-class professional services to the software industry in Nigeria and the regional stakeholder community and to foster a vibrant Nigerian software identity through the promotion of the “Proudly Nigerian” brand are part of the goals of Cross River State.

Similarly, the Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of United Bank fore Africa, Philip Oduoza who was represented byby the bank’s head of Electronic Banking, Mr Luqman Balogun, told the gathering that Nigerian will continue to lag behind in the scheme of things globally unless her talented workforce is retooled for digital opportunities.

According to him, Nigeria should borrow a leaf from those countries that are putting in place exclusive institutional framework to promote the development of the software industry.

Establishment of a national commission for software development with the mandate to facilitate the development of software policy, best practice standards, regulations, market promotion, capacity building and research, design and development, establish Software Knowledge Parks and Software Engineering development corridors, establish secured National IT Infrastructure Backbone to accelerate national software engineering development and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), review the National Education Curriculum and creation of full Software Engineering and Information System Department, establish a National Software Development Policy Bill and enact Acts to be passed into Law and framework on alternative funding options for software development and application among others are part of his key recommendations for software development.

For the President of Nigerian Computer Society, Professor Charles Uwadia, local software remains bedrock for economic development of any nation, adding that Nigeria should create an enabling environment for local products to thrive both locally and internationally. Uwadia who is passionate about software incubation among students noted without mincing words that local software development can be a alternative to oil if adequate attention is paid to it.

“Much has been said about Nigerian software. Much has been heard about Nigeria software. We have talked about local software development in many conferences and seminars. We have sent our recommendations to the government but unfortunately, not enough has been done. We will continue to lag behind in global competitiveness unless indigenous software is given priority attention” Uwadia said.

The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) was established in 1998 to accelerate the creation of an enabling environment for the sustainable growth of the Nigerian Software Industry, among other objectives. However, ISPON’s advocacy in the past had led to the establishment an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Software and the birth of the Nigeria Software Development Initiative (NSDI) and the establishment of Pilot IT departments in selected federal ministries.