Emma Okonji
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the federal government agency responsible for implementation of Information Technology (IT) policy in the country, will soon announce measures to check importation of foreign software into the country.
Director General of NITDA, Dr. Isa Pantami, who announced the plan during the 2017 President Dinner, organised by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), said the move became necessary, in order to put an end to capital flight.
According to him, the government spends about $1 billion out of the $2.8 billion it spends annually on importation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) goods and services.
He said the move would also protect and promote local content policy in the country, and help government to save money that could be used for capital projects in the country.
The almost $1 billon, which is about 4 per cent of the proposed 2017 annual budget, spend annually on software imports, could have been saved and used to promote and enhance locally developed software that will produce the same result as the foreign software.
“We are committed to reverse this trend of uncontrolled inflow of foreign software to the detriment of our own local software. We seek to identify, strengthen and promote our indigenous software as an alternative to the foreign software that currently dominated out ICT sector,” Pantami said.
Pantami, who was represented at the forum by the Director of Strategies, NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, said determined to achieve this feat, the NITDA was already working on the appropriate mechanism to review the country’s software policy in line with global trend and current realities in the country.
When completed, the reviewed software policy would be fully backed by law to defend and promote local content development, especially in the area of local software. The reviewed software policy would also empower the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), to ensure that approvals would only be given for the importation of foreign software for which there are no viable local software alternatives, Pantami said.
The NITDA boss therefore challenged ISPON and all other stakeholders to join efforts with NITDA in playing active roles in positioning the software policy as a major component for economic diversification.
President of ISPON, Mr. Olorogun James Emadoye, said; “Nigeria is ripe for a strategic legislation on software if we must change the tide that has turned us to a digital colony of the 21st century.” He said he was moved to meet with federal government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to discuss the need for patronage of local software, when he saw the 2016 budget that had well over N15 billion provision for the acquisition of computer software. ISPON, according to him, believed that the enforcement on the use of locally developed software would create millions of jobs for Nigeria and set the county on the path of self-sufficiency in software.
“If 70 per cent of the well over N15 billion 2016 budget on software acquisition was spent on developing software Nigeria, the impact would have been felt in all facets of the economy, with the ability to generate many billions of naira along the value chain,” Emadoye said. He therefore called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency on Nigeria software and establish a N100 billion litmus package as bailout for strategic national software development ecosystem. He equally called on government to compel NOTAP to collaborate with ISPON and NITDA, before approving foreign software payment.
