Nigeria
has the capacity to influence the global software technology landscape and reap
the huge attendant benefits if the government makes a conscious effort to
actualise the prosperous future that beckons the country in software
technology.
This
was the view shared by MD/CEO of SystemSpecs, Mr John Obaro, during the visit
of the Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, to the head office
of the company regarded as Nigeria’s leading software house, in Lagos.
The
Minister said the visit was to encourage the company and appreciate its flagship
indigenous software, Remita. He said had Remita been introduced to the federal
government earlier, government’s revenues would have improved significantly
than it is now.
“We owe
Systemspecs a debt of gratitude for introducing Remita. The electronic payment
platform has saved Nigeria about N2 trillion. In the area of e-government,
SystemSpecs has done well for Nigeria,” he said.
According to Obaro, the country should quit focusing
on agrarian initiatives at the basic levels, and concentrate on the potentials
of software technology wherein the future lies.
To attain this, he rolled out steps that the
federal government should take. He asked that government delegations should no
longer embark on foreign trade missions without the inclusion of Nigerian
software entrepreneurs or products.
He requested that the federal government should
not receive foreign software as aids donated to the country in areas where the
country has demonstrated local competence that can be polished.
“No longer should our young and virile tech
talents be allowed to succumb to foreign exploitation that retains them on
foreign soil rather than become a blessing to their fatherland,” he said.
This is
the time, according to him, for the country to seize advantage of the
opportunities inherent in software technology, when oil prices are at their
lowest.
He believed
the present situation in the country may be a time of divinely orchestrated
providence, expected to jolt the country from oil dependency to harnessing the
huge potentials presented by software technology.
“While
our currency is struggling and the naira’s exchange rate against major currencies
have almost doubled in less than a year, we still have to source enormous
foreign exchange to service the huge foreign-owned software assets in use by government
at all levels and across the private sector. The beneficiaries are those
countries that have nurtured their software industry and caused us to be
dependent on them even in critical areas of our national life.”
He then wondered what the country would have
benefitted had the software installed at the Office of the Accountant General
of the Federation [OAGF], Federal Inland Revenue Service [FIRS], Nigeria Inter-Bank
Settlement Systems [NIBSS], the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], and the banks
are all powered by indigenous software companies.
“Let us imagine what would have happened if Government
Integrated Financial Management Information System [GIFMIS] and Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System
[IPPIS]
at OAGF are powered by indigenous software and not one from Estonia and USA
respectively. If Integrated Tax
Administration System [ITAS] at
FIRS is an indigenous software and not from Canada; if the Bank Verification
Number [BVN] platform deployed by NIBSS is powered by an indigenous software
and not from Germany; if Real Time Gross Settlement [RTGS] platform at CBN is
powered by indigenous software, and not one from Sweden.
“Let us imagine that at least one Nigerian bank
uses indigenous software rather than the prevailing situation where all the
banks use foreign software procured from India, Jordan, Switzerland, etc.”
He listed
the benefits of patronising indigenous software by the government to include
assisting the federal government realise its objective of providing employment
to teeming talented Nigerian youths. Others are the conservation of the huge
foreign exchange currently lost when paid as annual software maintenance fee to
foreign software providers and the retention of 100% annual maintenance fees
within the Nigerian economy.
Specifically, he further stressed that, had the government
patronised the indigenous software industry, this would have helped the country
to preserve its foreign reserves and thereby become a net exporter of software
and an earner of huge foreign exchange.
His experience
has shown that many indigenous software entrepreneurs have become discouraged
while others have closed shop and thrown employees on the streets.
He offered
that aside the low patronage by the government, lack of “specific funding to
develop the software sector of the economy is another challenge faced by the
practitioners.”
Razaack Psalmson/GEE
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