By Emma Okonji
Information Technology (IT) professionals, under aegis of Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), have stressed the need for improved investments in digital infrastructure in the public and private sector business.
They were of the view that investing in digital infrastructure, remained one of the fastest ways to transform Nigeria’s economy, adding that the development of such infrastructure is critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The IT professionals made he call at the just concluded CPN organised IT Assembly, held in Abuja.
Former Group Managing Director/CEO, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Peter Amangbo, in his keynote address, stressed the need for improved investments in digital infrastructure, as a means to get the country positioned for the fourth industrial revolution that is knowledge-based.
Amangbo, who was represented by the Executive Director, Zenith Bank Plc., Mr. Umar Ahmed, said the new era would witness shifts of monumental proportion, enabled by the convergence of the physical environment and digital space, and driven by ubiquitous connectivity, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cloud computing, combining to enable the Internet of Things (IoTs).
According to Amangbo, “It may not be heavily prevalent in our local environment currently, but this wind of change is intensifying. It will bring massive disruptions to the traditional ways we have been doing things.
“Making the appropriate investments and adjustments is key to our relevance in the global economy of the future. One major area to invest is in digital infrastructure both at the public and enterprise levels.
“The enabling environment for entrepreneurship and development of start-ups should also be created through progressive regulation of sector players.”
The President of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Professor Adesola Aderounmu, also aligned his thoughts with the keynote speaker, explaining that the IT sector has kept its trajectory of organic evolution and revolution going forward in Nigeria and the entire word because it is a unique industry where change, innovation and transformation are constant phenomena shaping the present and defining the future.
Aderounmu reminded the professionals that technology trend were relentlessly evolving at the speed of the future, such that they must all keep up with the trends or risk missing the train.
“So, it is instructive that the chosen theme for this year’s edition of CPN IT Assembly echoes the national mantra of the new government that has just been inaugurated at the Federal level.
“The new national government’s thematic slogan is Next Level in governance, while CPN’s chosen theme for this Assembly is Digital Infrastructure: Defining the Next Level. One quick inference from this thematic coincidence is that the IT industry practitioners in Nigeria must continue to be digital light bearers, showing the right path to sustainable national development and secured future through ICT,” Aderounmu said.
CPN President, Professor Charles Uwadia, noted that infrastructure had always been important to a nation’s economic growth and success, but stressed that the infrastructure needed for today’s economy was rapidly changing with advances in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).
“This new infrastructure is critical to delivering the next wave of innovation and economic growth to all nations. This is because the development of any nation is usually measured by the degree and extent of growth in the socio-cultural, socio-economic, and political spheres, which are all today enabled and driven by Information Technology,” Uwadia said.
