https://promonaija.com/n3m-intervention-fund-for-software-development-trivial-1083
Stakeholders in the Information and Communication Technology sector have described N3million intervention fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria, for the development of indigenous software as a stipend compared to the enormous resources required to develop software.
They puzzled why software development intervention fund is trivial N3million compared to different sectors such as textile, Nollywood among others in view of the massive contributions software development generates to the economy.
Dr. Yele Okeremi, president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), has refuted insinuations that ICT stakeholders are not participating enough with government as reason for the amount CBN put aside for software development in Nigeria.
“We are engaging well with government which has resulted in Executive orders to encourage use of ICT local content. More so, a proactive government should search for people that can develop the country; our government has been pedestrian in the support for indigenous and endemic software. Whenever government talk about innovation, they don’t understand what innovation is. They see innovation as developing of applications only.
“If government is serious to develop indigenous software, increasing intervention fund to N100million will not achieve great result but market access will. By market access it means government and its agencies buying indigenous software which in turn will grow Nigerian companies to be able to invest more than N100 million for research and development in critical areas of software.
“We have the ingredients to create Software Empire which are human capital and governance structure. As at today, we have non-public companies that have showed correct governance structure.
“What government is doing is towing away our resources. If we buy home-made software it will amend the whole dynamics of the ecosystem. Government has to create enabling environment for the area to grow, it is on the far side, government orders while monitoring its implementations.
“Even if CBN raises the intervention fund to N100 million it will only have impact on certain category of companies. I understand the concerns of CBN which is the high-risk profile of software development process, but they don’t understand the capacity to de-risk profile through creating mega companies that can afford to take risk on smaller companies,” he furthered.
Chidi Ibisi, executive director, Business Development, Broadbased communications, decried the amount CBN made available for software development which according to him did not show enough commitment to growth of ICT in the country.
“Government has place broadband penetration target of 70 per cent without creating available fund through which operators can access to deploy infrastructure.
Alternative, they have to create an enabling environment for foreign investment to come into the country,” he said.
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