Uwaje calls for immortalising Tayo Adeyemi with 'Digital Journalism Excellence Award' - WeekendReflections@ITREALMS

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Renowned Information Technology (IT) thought leader, Chief Chris Uwaje, has called for the immortalisation of the late Olutayo Adeyemi, describing him as “a digital comet whose brilliance illuminated the path of technology-driven journalism in Nigeria.”

Uwaje, who is the Principal Consultant and CEO of Connect Technologies Limited, as well as former President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), made the call in an emotional tribute titled “There Goes a digital Comet: Lessons from the Demise of a Digital Enigma at the Speed of Insightful Journalism.”

NITDA: Why Uwaje bagged national IT leadership award - ITREALMS

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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has given reasons why the former President of Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON), Chief Chris Uwaje, was recently honoured with the National Information Technology (IT) Leadership award, reports ITREALMS.

Uwaje who is largely referred to as the Oracle of IT industry in Nigeria, according to NITDA has mentored several Nigerians in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ecosystem both locally and internationally.

Uwaje chairs NITRA Growth conference, today - ITREALMS

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Stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will converge tomorrow, Thursday, to discuss and forge ways of tackling challenges in the various sub-sectors of the industry.

Tagged NITRA Growth Conference, the annual event organised by industry media group, the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) will throw light on issues around funding, fintech, digitisation, among others.

NSOFT hosts NOTAP DG, as Dan-Azumi pledges more support - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The National Software Think Tank (NSOFT) has hosted the Director-General (DG) of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Dan-Azumi, reports NSOFT hosts NOTAP DG, as Dan-Azumi pledges more support - ITREALMS.

NSOFT also appreciated the DG with an award as a friend of the software industry and development in the country, due to  his foresightedness in setting up the think tank.

This is coming as Dr. Dan-Azumi has pledged more support to ensure progression of software industry in Nigeria.

Speaking at the reception, the Chairman, National Software Think Tank, Chief Chris Uwaje said that this has become necessary, at this time Dr. Dan-Azumi is on his second tenure to encourage him to consolidate on a number of software-related matters and to continue to upscale its promotion too.

NSOFT, he said, was the outcome of the two-day ICT Stakeholders Roundtable on the application and use of software in the financial sector, jointly hosted in Lagos by NOTAP and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) between March 18 through 19, 2019 and was inaugurated

NSOFT, he noted was inaugurated by NOTAP earlier in the year to address some of the critical challenges in the national software ecosystem with the mandate to explore the need for and provide a Five Year - National Software Strategic Plan for consideration.

“It is my pleasure therefore to inform you that NSOFT has completed and submitted the report of the assignment,” he said, congratulated the DG on his reappointment by the Federal Government for the second term as DG. NOTAP.

It is in this regards, Uwaje said, “his passion for the promotion of Local Content with particular reference to software and performances, he was singled out for appreciation.”

In his response, Dr. Dan-Azumi thanked NSOFT for the honour, assuring them that with adequate understanding and support of the industry, more achievement will be recorded before the end of his tenure.

For him, implementation of policy directions is key to successful emancipation of the country from poverty-ranking and technology stands the chance for leapfrogging the nation.

NOTAP, he said, will not take any option than promotion of technologies and intellectual properties of Nigerians

The cocktail, held on courtesy of FINTRACK Software Solutions & UnionSystems attracted topnotch leaders of the industry including President, Digital Bridge Institute, Prof. Mohammed Ajiya, Director of New Media and Information Security at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Engr. Haru Al-Hassan, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, President of Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Dr. Yale Okeremi, Executive Director, SystemSpecs, Deremi Atanda, Director at NOTAP, Mr. Jonas Nzeagu and the ICT media, among others.

Chuks Egbuna/Editor

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Pix: Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of ALTON, congratulating NOTAP DG Dr Dan-Azumi on his award by NSOFT led by Chief Chris Uwaje

Digital battle: Time to localize your password by Uwaje - ITREALMS

MondayCommentary@ITREALMS:

The next digital battle resides in the struggle to hide and seek your Password.

Relevant estimates show that, there are about 1250-2100 languages. Therefore, is the adoption of Local Language Password Code beneficial to a country? “Around a hundred languages are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. Arabic, Somali, Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Manding, Fulani and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people.” (Wiki).

The above question on adoption of Local Language Password Code is very inviting and critical to the digital-knowledge-of-things (DKoT). Indeed, there have been many illuminating debates on this subject with pros and cons - based on which part of the digital divide one is positioned. Applying digital common sense, using your local language does not only make sense, it is important, strategic and beneficial.

The main focal-point of this write-up can be summarized as follows: “In fact, using characters from a wider pool makes it harder for an attacker to guess your password by brute force. That said, making the password slightly longer generally does that more effectively than sprinkling "weird" characters into your password (obligatory xkcd link), so you should only use non-English characters in your password if you can type and remember them easily, e.g. because you speak a language that uses those characters”.

One thing to keep in mind as we further explore the subject-matter (with ASCII at the Background) is to note that initially, the Internet as we know it today was really not designed with digital security in mind. ASCII is a 7-bit character-set containing 128 characters ranging from the 0-9 numbers, forming the upper and lower case English letters from A to Z, and some special characters. The character-sets used in modern computers, in HTML, and on the Internet, are all based on ASCII. Luckily, Nigerian and most African Languages are alphabet-based.

Simply defined, ASCII (spoken as) ASS-kee), is an acronym which stands for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”. ASCII is a model designed for character encoding standard to enable flexible electronic communication. Further illuminated, ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other Information Technology devices.

In general, there is no reason not to use arbitrary characters in a password, unless the system processing the password does something stupid with them (like removes them completely, leaving an empty password). History tells us that in the old days of language-specific character- sets, there was always the risk that passwords with non-ASCII characters might disappoint the user when you switched to a different computer.

This problem arises because standardized model has not matured and the system was encoding those characters differently. But today the system devices are much standardized on Unicode as the standard universal character-set – making password construct much admissible as far as it obeys the rules guiding usage of special characters. Some user experience have shown that in Cyberhacking, the attacker does not expect victims using their own local language and sometime mixed with foreign languages – hence, the penetration becomes more difficult for the attacker and delivers improved protection to the User..

Example of the adoption and use of local African Languages for Mobile phone access, email and Mobile financial and ATM transactions are in their millions. A User testimony attested as follows: “I used to have 'special' letters in my email address to combat spam. It worked greatly, I have not yet received a single email for that address”

Also: “Of course, we still have different ways of encoding Unicode characters into bytes, like UTF-8, UTF-16-LE/BE, UCS-32, etc., but at least those are generally pretty well under the receiving program's control, as opposed to depending on the user's OS and/or terminal settings like charset selection used to be. And, honestly, UTF-8 is becoming pretty well established as the standard Unicode encoding for I/O purposes, even if some software may use other encodings internally.) In fact, using characters from a wider pool makes it harder for an attacker to guess your password by brute force”.

That said, making the password slightly longer generally does that more effectively than sprinkling "weird" characters into your password (obligatory xkcd link), so you should only use non-English characters in your password if you can type and remember them easily, e.g. because you speak a language that uses those characters. Still, there are some reasons why you might sometimes not want to use non-ASCII characters in your password.”

Finally, “A word is enough for the wise: Choose, apply and use your local language (with numeric combination where possible) as your preferred Password protection it will safe you life troubles in the digital battle of the 21st Century.”

*Contributed by Chris Uwaje, former president Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON).

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Life is a code

Commentary@ITREALMS:

Our life is a spider-web of Codes. Where is Software Nigeria? For all those countries – especially in Africa/Nigeria who are not aware or blatantly refused to acknowledge the power of Information Technology (especially the Software of Things)  and are therefore significantly lagging behind the concept, challenges, complexities timely application and fatal consequences of the neglect of Information Technology development, the compelling and innovative truth is that “Life is a Code”. Indeed, our entire life and the whole humanity is a crystal ball of code rapped in the mastery of software and related IT Ecosystem. Only those who embrace and religiously master it will effectively manage sustainable development and prosper. And those who are currently blind, deaf and dumb to the amazing world of Code……..will perish. Did I say perish? Nay such nations will depart this life and be forever forgotten.

As the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) prepares to celebrate her 20^th anniversary, there is need to further explore the state of Software-Nigeria. Simply defined, a code is a system of imagination and interpretation of life patterns at all levels, by replacing the words in a message with other words or symbols, so that it conjures complexity and nobody can understand it unless he/she possesses the system knowhow. Intricate secret codes are used in various forms eg: when the names of trees stood for letters. A code is also any system of signs or symbols such as our finger-prints and the genetic Codes used by living cells to translate encoded information (DNA) with magical meanings.

A typical example is the Enigma Machine. The Enigma machines were a series of electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines developed and used in the early-to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic and military communications. Thanks to Alan Turing who cracked the Code and averted a major world catastrophe during the Second World War. Indeed, Turing’s skill and work during the Second World War were so decisive that Winston Churchill acknowledged his role as follows: “Turing made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory” Turing was a Code Warrior and brilliant Mathematician.

‎Going forward with life as a Code, “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” — Bill Gates. And according to David Landes (1998): “Indeed, the very notion of productivity is a by-product of the clock: once one can relate performance to uniform time units, work is never the same” (p. 49–50). It was the invention of the mechanical clock which in turn led to one of Adam Smith’s seminal insights: wealth and prosperity depend directly—to use Smith’s language—on the “productive powers of labor.” (David Landes (1998 - modified)

Therefore Software Code is undoubtedly the backbone to 21^st century economic development, national security and survivability. Above all, it validates the maxim: “we cannot manage what we cannot measure (codify)”.  Today, the quantum challenges, needs and response aspirations for our national leadership, security of life and survivability for a population of about 200 million people cannot be effectively determined, scaled, effectively managed and/or measured without a centralized and dynamic National Code in enigmatic Database and Security Intelligent System.  It is however pertinent to state that Nigeria’s survivability is to a larger degree, a shared inspiration, obligation and responsibility of the State and the citizenry. 

According to Philip Zelikow Executive Director of 9/11 Commission and a Professor at the University of Virginia, USA, the most significant lessons learned from the 9/11 catastrophe is: “The United States of America would have done, before the 9/11 saga, most of the things (i.e: reactionary measures taken) that we did post 9/11!”  A valid example is the establishment of the Homeland Security Institutional framework with its complex, colossal, multi-dimensional and highly-critical information infrastructure with expansive Database systems on Cybersecurity and Terrorism. It is all for public safety. Indeed, it is all about life as a Code.

Nigeria is currently faced with a similar challenge of weaponized fire wrapped up in Code- ignorance and hate against self  - informed by the magnitude our under-development and complexities of terror such as the United Nations suicide bomb blast and other deadly hits, such as the INEC bomb blast at Suleja, Niger State and the Abuja Police HQ, bomb blast, Chibok Girls, and now Dapchi  saga to mention but a few. Would we have done some of the things we now intend to do – about 20 years ago?

Would we have mobilized the IT Professionals and created a National Coding Platforms and Institution, Security Intelligence Database, adequately prepared with disaster recovery plans and mastered the related operational complexities before they stuck? What about the monumental and heart breaking corruption and thief-thief figures slapping us in the face every nanosecond?

21^st century Information clusters are dynamic knowledge architecture for developing Intelligent and security systems. Many centuries ago, great philosophers of knowledge like Aristotle, Francis Beckon, etc., have informed us that the character of a nation is dictated by the structure, knowledge modules, organizational ability and programmed processes of her information and Database systems. 

In other words, “As we lay our national information systems bed, so we sleep on it! The role of Technology and in particular, e-Government and software systems in National Security Database Intelligence dynamics has therefore become a critical and significant component as well as a fundamental necessity for understanding e-security life-cycle. Also, it amplifies the needs and accelerated urgency for deploying strategies capable of protecting Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) with result-oriented and sustainable implementation process. Software-Nigeria is the key and the secure Roadmap to our future and Indigenous skill-sets must be called to national duty. 

Empowering the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) therefore becomes an urgent imperative to provide and deliver the required solutions. The reason is not far-fetched, the task is a very sensitive initiative which represents and is indeed, the knowledge laboratory for national survivability. India is a good example of this process.

For so long, our Information and Data attributes seems to have been sentenced by ignorance to the death-roll of our nation building agenda and development mission. This artificially conceived anti-Code mindset (the Nigerian factor?) has indeed subverted and corrupted the conscious layers of our intellectual and merit-mechanisms. Furthermore, it has aided and abetted the migration of our patriotic ability, from a community of “what-you-know” to a society of “who-you know” and where you come from!  A robust national database can be designed and built by IT professionals to resolve the crisis of Nigeria’s under-development.

Above all, it has created a society that is entangled in techno-phobia and estranged by technology. A society that abhors critical information process; shuns, hunts and crucifies rigorous database generation and myopically subdues professional IT knowledge acquisition project implementation processes as insignificant or unnecessary for national intelligence and people development. 

The consequence is that what we now have is a capital merchandising environment – otherwise known as ‘Okada economy’! This has led us to pursue and glorify 4-megawatts of power generation, when indeed we require a minimum of 50-megawatts to jump-start a globally meaningful and competitive vision as the single largest concentration of people of African descent under the universe. It is all about Software. It is about Database! Information Technology professionals can significantly contribute to the national mission of providing constant power generation and distribution for Nigeria.

The reality today translates to the fact that it should be abundantly clear to us, that the era and long-addicted habit of physically and blindly chasing the containers and cargo packages at all our import terminals and air/land boarders and throwing away the content of the manifest documents that represent the knowledge-base and real world inside the containers, must be over by now. 

The fact that ‘Kid Google’ utilizes over 2.3million Megawatts to run its global knowledge business compared to Nigeria’s dream for generating 10,000 Megawatts by 2020, or a reality that Microsoft has earned more money in 25years of its operation – than what General Motors has netted in 100years, should be a wakeup call to Nigeria! Waking up here implies that Code Dreamers, Design-Thinking Innovators and IT Professionals in Nigeria must be accorded their rightful place in the task if Nation building and sustainable development and national security.

The life we live today is made-up of and wrapped in Codes. Information Technology (IT) is undoubtedly the world's fastest growing body of knowledge for sustainable development and national survivability. At the centre of these very complex processes is Software Infrastructure. On a thumb rule, Nigeria needs to case a serious look into Code development and aim to spin out 500,000 Code Warriors within the next 36 months. Life is a Code. No Code, No life!  

*Contributed by Chris Uwaje

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Akwa-Ibom: From smart city to smart state

MondayCommentary@ITRealms:

First, it is essential to state that Akwa Ibom was the first State in Nigeria to establish and enthrone a State Information (IT) Policy and created a Science and Technology Office at the Cabinet level – represented by a Commissioner. 

True to type, the State has also become the first to appoint a full-fledged ICT professional as SSG. Indeed, the ‘first kid on the block’ concept in contemporary development is not new. Chief Obafemi Awolowo applied it in 1955 when he enthroned ‘Free Education’ in the South-West and Bill Gates of MS and Steve Jobs of Apple PC applied it to fire and light-up the accelerated development of global ICT ecosystem.

It was year 2003 – sitting on the dark windows of a Night Bus to Uyo – I headed into an adventure of the unknown. The mission was to explore the e-Readiness of Akwa Ibom State ICT development. Oblivious of the challenges before me, delighting from the bus on arrival on the early morning the next day, I was welcomed by a refreshing breeze full of rich oxygen engulfed in a distant voice of ‘Welcome to Uyo’. It was at that moment that I realized that my mission was to lay a foundation for ICT as the most strategic imperative for the sustainable development and competitiveness of the State in the very near future.

Today, that future is here – giving us the privilege to look back and advance our evaluation as proof of concept for assessing 21^st Century development and growth at the State level. Before we evaluate the advantages of Akwa Ibom State as one of the very first to establish an IT Policy, let’s look at the future of ICT e-readiness of Akwa Ibom State in view of the current state of things. 

Based on my assessment of the ICT landscape in Akwa Ibom 2016-2018, the state will be one of the most advanced ICT Smart-State in Nigeria and indeed perhaps the first to deploy Robots for Education, Health, State Security, Essential public service, etc for sustainable development (derived from her current advantages of small population of 5.4m, enormous resources and abundant intelligent pioneers with ‘Can-do Sprit’); Readiness for acceleration of robust ICT infrastructure development, with respect to State-wide Broadband Internet access, State of the Art Fibre Optics Network for state security and youth empowerment will unleash monumental innovation beyond basic imagination. 

The State would harness the advantages of Internet of Things and Nano Technologies as diversification strategy of Akwa Ibom economy from Oil & Gas to Information Intelligence resources in preparation for Information Society (IS).

Before other States realize the ICT State of Things in Akwa Ibom, the environment would have propelled the State from the shadows of ‘Smart-City’ to the villa to the metropolis of Smart-States by 2030. This would be actualized by intensifying AI and Machine to Machine (M2M) Solutions strategies and multiply the dividend to her people exponentially. The secret of all these is hidden on the probability that the State government will promote the establishment State Innovation development Fund for Software Engineering Institutes (SDI), Code-accelerator based Education, Innovation Hubs, Critical Local Data centres, ICT Research Centres, etc – leading to position Akwa Ibom as the first destination for ICT Skill Resources and solutions to serve the nation and the ICT-hungry African market.

Today, as we speak, many States  in Nigeria are yet to develop State ICT policy and their ICT development funding mechanisms are at the lowest bottom of the budget ladder.

 Flash back, the same scenario was experienced in 1955, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo established Free-Eduction in the South West Region of Nigeria, while others were asleep – making the South West the current leader in the statistical spread of those who can read, write and educated all through West Africa and beyond. That is not all, the South West ICT agenda of empowering many millions of its citizenry with ICT competence of ‘how to code’ will further put the region many miles ahead of the others in the next decades. That is where Akwa Ibom will stand tall amongst equals in the emerging creative society. The State has done well in ICT spend and investment over the years.

Moving forward with the deserved appointment of Dr, Emmanuel Ekuwem - an exceptional IT Professional and renowned Tele Communications expert as the State Secretary of Government of Akwa Ibom State, the expectations are that Akwa Ibom State will undoubtedly become the first address for ICT knowledge advancement, solutions, services and creative dimensions for the sustainable future.

The current landscape ICT advantage of Akwa-Ibom State was conceptualised in 2003. This established the State Information Technology (IT) and Science and Technology (S&T) Policies respectively. These sets of policy frameworks were aimed at: Creating knowledge and innovation clusters for strategic and sustainable development of the State. Retooling the workforce in readiness for e-Government programs designed to meet the basic and central needs of the State. 

Finetuning leadership and governance operations. Discovering and enthroning new knowledge resources to serve core business–commercialisation activities. Reposition the State’s ICT brand to engage national and International entrepreneurial and innovation culture. Engaging knowledge workers and core Stakeholders to relocate to the State for the real mission of adding sustainable value State development and prosperity.

In the beginning, the central goals include but not limited to the following: Transform Akwa Ibom through ICT. Conceptualize the establishment of Akwa Ibom State’s ICT Policy and premier Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Park as the central Hub and strategic platform for transforming and accelerating the development and advancement of new Knowledge Resources to empower existing start-ups, small and medium scale businesses and industries. Apply R&D to understand and master the secrets behind accelerated ICT, future applications and related Technology development curves in innovation, electronics, advanced materials business and e-Government development. Develop and built new Entrepreneurs and Techno-preneurs Culture.

While wishing Akwa Ibom State well in pursuance of her sustainable ICT mission, there is need to invigorate and apply design-thinking process to accelerate Youth employment through ICT knowledge empowerment and the commercialization of innovative State technologies. Above all, there is need to improve and protect the State’s Critical ICT Infrastructure, business incubation, knowledge coaching, skills development, strategic relationship networks and access to capital.

 For the records, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem shared the vision with professional advice at the founding stage of the State’s IT Policy. Those who were in the line of fire for actualizing the establishment of the foundation of Akwa Ibom State’s ICT vision and mission at the critical stage include but now limited to the followings:  Obong. Victor Attah– First and Former Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State. Dr. Linus Asuqor  First Commissioner for S &T, Chris Uwaje of Connect Technologies as Lead Consultant, Obong. Effangga, former PS of S&T. Prof. Ntuen (Department of Human Machine, North Carolina University, USA, Chief Ebitimi Banigo: Former  Federal Minister for S&T, Prof. Akpan Ekpo , former VC of Uni Uyo, Yinka Tanimowo, Gbenga Sesan as technical support and others too numerous to mention. Time for other States to learn ans share from Akwa Ibom’s ICT strategy and experience.

*Contributed by Chris Uwaje, aka, Oracle of IT industry and former president, Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON).

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IPv6, next battlefield says Uwaje

ITRealms:

The Vice Chairman of the Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6 Council Nigeria), Chief Chris Uwaje has described the IPv6 as the next frontier for global battlefield, especially for sustainable development and wealth creation, reports ITRealms.

Uwaje made this observation during his presentation on IPv6 Adoption: Imperative for a Nigeria Strategic Plan at the just ended AfriNIC 27 which held in Lagos, at the weekend.

Uwaje, who is a software engineer and former president, Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON) also described IPv6 as gradually becoming absolute prefix to the Internet.

He also beckoned on African nations to take advantage of IPv6 opportunities by advancing their strategic plans.

“… I believe that very soon, IPv6 will become the absolute Prefix to the Internet and African nations must take advantage of this awesome opportunity by advancing IPv6 strategic plans,” he said.

According to him, the creation of new wealth in the world resides in IPv6 and Internet of Thing (IoT) strategic intervention at allcritical levels of development.

Africa, he said, stands the dawn of technology opportunity and will benefit immensely, if government policy encourages the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry and stakeholders to lead the advocacy and promotion of IPv6 adoption as a gateway to sustainable development in the continent.

He pointed out that thi s, will spur innovation, create employment for the Youth, improve global e-Readiness status, improve our national security concerns and accelerate global competitiveness.

“For this and other cogent reasons, a strategic plan is imperative to improve IPv6 adoption in Nigeria and the Continent,” he said.

Uwaje further said that today, the world is gradually living IPv4 behind and continues to register accelerated adoption and growth in end-user IPv6 deployment in many developed countries.

Chuks Egbune/GEE/ED, Ops

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Uwaje says Yudala is company to watch

ITRealms:

The former President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Chris Uwaje, has declared that Yudala is a company to watch, reports ITRealms.

Uwaje who made this assertion while interacting with young technology students said that e-commerce company Yudala has the potential of breaking the boundaries of the Nigerian Stock market in the next few years, given its strategic positioning and futuristic combination of online and offline in the Nigerian e-commerce industry.

According to Uwaje, the remarkable achievements and disruptions by Yudala, a fledging start-up launched at a time the Nigerian economy entered the current recession, makes it a company to look out for in the business space.

“Yudala’s achievements should instruct you to anticipate a golden future for your tech-savvy generation. It is important you think outside the box and innovate like the founders of Yudala have done.

“Today, the centre of gravity of the digital knowledge domain resides in understanding the chemistry of IT and Software Development Ecosystem. Humanity today, lives in a 'Software-first' world, where innovation, bold and disruptive creativity have become the centre of gravity of life and significance of human existence where over 3.6 billion people are connected to the Internet, making e-Commerce the ultimate game-changer.

“For example, the Internet of Things (IoT) is projected to connect about 50 billion devices by 2020 at an estimated market value of about $19 trillion USD.  In my professional evaluation, this represents the most constructive, disruptive, and strategic pathway to Africa’s future.  A future dictated by technological know-how and where Nigeria must take the lead and protect her survivability. Our future resides in the mastery, application and sustainable control of our intellectual capital. This is why Yudala has become the most creative and potent milestone in the innovation landscape and a company for major case study in 21st century.

“I encourage you to increase your passion for the technology sector and fuel your hunger to achieve because technology leaders are global citizens. A company like Yudala is essentially a technology company founded on a strong technology backbone, sound human capital and a clear duplex retail roadmap. The company’s impressive strategies and sustained market relevance even where others have failed, is a pride to the nation and I would not be surprised if the company becomes the biggest company on the Stock Exchange in the nearest future.

“If the Yudala business was launched by a white man, it would have been lauded to the high heavens and would have certainly diminished the intellectual confidence of the average Nigerian. So we must take pride in this purely Nigerian company which I hear, was founded by a 23-year old Nigerian.”

Taking the students down memory lane, Dr. Uwaje, a former President of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and distinguished Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), recounted the impacts of notable personalities whose actions helped shape the developments in the Nigerian technology industry. Charging them to study the Yudala strategy, he noted that today’s youth are better placed to surpass the achievements of the older generation.

“When you consider the trajectory of the Nigerian technology sector; our generation started small as we did not have the kind of exposure you have today. People like myself, Chief Don Etiebet and Leo Stan Ekeh, among others, did our best to lay the foundation but your generation is better placed to achieve so much more within a shorter period. You have the tools, access to knowledge and required exposure.

“If the Management eventually decides to go public as was widely published some time ago, I think Yudala has the potential of becoming one of the most valuable companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the near future. And I am sure a lot of you would create even bigger companies and this shall resolve the unemployment challenges, branding issues and stronger future of our nation as a true member of the global community.”

Speaking further, Uwaje called on the Federal Government to see reasons for it to throw its weight behind sterling start-ups in the technology sector such as Yudala in line with the huge potential of the sector as a major employer of labour.

“The problem is for the Government to realize the importance of the ICT sector as a mass employer of labour and support the growth of companies in the sector.

“The current economic recession has taken a huge toll on businesses, with many of them having no choice than to embark on staff cuts or retrenchment. Many companies in the ICT sector have helped to reduce the burden of many families as they not only employed a lot of Nigerians but also refrained from mass sacks throughout this period.

“Companies such as these should get special concessions from the Government as a means of encouraging them to do more. These concessions could be in form of tax holidays or other waivers. This is one way of promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in Nigeria as the success of a well-structured business holds positive signs for the growth of the Nigerian economy,” he concluded.

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