As more young Nigerians continue to distinguish themselves through innovative creation of software applications, the minister of Technology and Communications, Omobola Johnson, has urged them to strive beyond just creating software to setting up their own businesses and generating employment opportunities for others.
She gave the charge at the Civic Centre in Lagos when the Centre for Values in Leadership CVL held a ceremony to recognise and celebrate Information Communications Technology ICT immense contributions to Nigeria’s economic growth. She noted that Nigerians were distinguishing themselves in the ICT space in terms of impactful innovation and creativity but were not yet exploring the full potential of their creations and innovations by earning the most value out of them.
She mentioned that out of 40 finalists who took part in the inaugural DEMO Africa event in Kenya last year, to pitch their innovative technology ideas to a panel of experts, strategic buyers and investors, 14 of them came from Nigeria and four were products of the ministry’s idea acceleration centres.
“It should not just be about developing codes, I believe that companies can be born out of these innovations. What they need to do is take that software and build a business around it just like Jack Ma did with Alibaba in China,” she said. She however lamented that there was a gender divide when it comes to the digital world and advised that women should get more involved rather than allowing it to continue as a male dominated sphere.
“We are working with Huawei and we are going to train 1000 unemployed girls and young women to acquire ICT skills and after that getting them jobs in the ICT sector,” she said.
She also called for a market re-orientation that will favourably be disposed to Nigerian made ICT devices and software, just like it is done in other countries of the world.
In his address titled “ICT and Nigeria’s Coming Economy,” CVL founder/chief executive officer, Prof Pat Utomi, noted that one way of promoting economic growth was to research economic sectors that have flourished and brought new hope from the leadership of individuals and find collective traits that have made the sector thrive, so that other sectors could learn from it.
“Initial evidence available to us suggested three sectors were breaking the mould. These are Information and Communications Technology, Entertainment and Agriculture. These led the CVL team to instituting annual sector celebrations to celebrate trend setting economic sectors. ICT was a natural leader,” he said.
He noted that in Nigeria where the clarion call for the last 30 years has been about diversifying the economy away from the monoculture dependence on crude oil earnings, it was imperative of the mission of advancing economic sector leadership that CVL find non-oil sectors that were breaking the stereotype of oil dependence and making sustainable growth.
“ICT as an enabler industry, raising productivity possibilities in several sectors makes its contribution even more profound. Ideally Banking, which is perhaps the first economic sector denoted by Nigerian indigenes that aspired to world-class, could have been one of the top sectors but for regulatory and structural challenges of the last few years but has benefitted much in its ascendancy from support by the ICT sector,” he said.
He said CVL was proud to celebrate a sector that broke the jinx of access to voice communication via the GSM revolution; developed software to boost local productivity and has produced developers who have been sold abroad for decent profit.
“I am particularly proud of the leadership of Chris Uwaje at the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria ISPON and the pioneering work done by people like Chioma Onyekwere, Seni Williams and more. We at CVL celebrate these efforts that signpost the future of the Nigerian economy,” he said.
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