Indigenous software developers have argued that in the next three years, Nigeria can generate over $10 billion (N1.5 trillion) annually from selling and exporting locally-developed software, if the right environment is created for local software developers.

Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), who dropped the hint in Lagos recently, challenged government to create the enabling environment and policies that would boost software development in the country.

President of ISPON, Chris Uwaje, said Nigeria would continue to lose huge money to foreign software developers who took advantage of the situation to sell unregulated software in Nigeria.

Uwaje was proud to announce the international recognition accorded to Nigeria for software development by the International Arch of Europe Quality Award, which was based on ISO QC100 standard and awarded to Nigerian developed software. He stated if the Nigerian-developed software could be recognised by international body, then ISPON had demystified the erroneous view and false impression that indigenous software did not meet international standard.

Nigeria and 71 other countries received the BID award in various categories in Frankfurt, Germany, at the 30th April 2012 event.

The Award was conferred and presented to the ISPON President, by President and CEO of Business Initiative Directions (BID), Europe, Mr. Jose E. Prieto, after the recommendation of the BID election committee made up of participants from 90 countries of the world.

Uwaje who noted that there was an acute danger in blindly allowing the unregulated and wholesale deployment of foreign application software in key critical and sensitive areas of the national economy, especially in Federal Government operations, called on government to see it as a challenge to Nigeria and to recognise and address the importance of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based software.

According to Uwaje, “At last, Nigerian-developed software is now at the international level having received the much-awaited international recognition, when she received the International Arch of Europe Quality Award based on ISO QC100 standard.

Explaining why indigenous software is critical and important to Nigeria and Nigerians, Uwaje said the secret of all future national development progress lied in information systems, where software is the heart. “With a very poor Research, Design and Development (RD&D) platform and technology incubation and development culture, Nigeria is at best, described as light years away from mastering heavy industries, as experiences in the Industrial Revolution had portrayed, making us currently incapable of manufacturing such common technology products as an automobile, airplane/ or even a simple motorbike or bicycle.  Above all, importation of foreign software currently costs Nigeria well over $1 billion in foreign exchange, some of which constitute a colossal waste and national security risk issues,” Uwaje said.

Uwaje stressed the need to establish a National Software Development Policy, Master Plan and Awareness agenda, since building software capacities present immense economic opportunities for nation building.

Uwaje said ISPON would continue to play up the critical and strategic importance of software for national survivability in the 21st century, which he said, has not been fully understood by the Nigerian leadership, a situation, he added, must change because neither the 20 -2020 vision nor the transformation agenda could be effectively delivered and sustained without the infusion and diffusion of software capability and capacities.

Source: thisdaylive.com