Federal Government’s preference for foreign software, in place of better indigenous substitutes, causes massive job losses, capital flight and is killing the information communication technology (ICT) industry, the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), has said.
It said ICT is at the heart of every aspect of modern life, and as a country, the country needed to place greater premium on the development of ICT, particularly software, which is a veritable vehicle for the growth of the economy.
Its President, Mr. Olorogun James Emadoye, who spoke on the sideline of the group’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, Ikeja, said, though IT is already driving many aspects of the local economy, a lot more still has to be done.
According to him, IT contributes about 11 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) which he said is second to the agriculture sector.
He said: “Hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost due to our foreign software addiction. Take the financial services sector as an example: GIFMIS at OAGF is powered by a software from Estonia (population: 1.3million); IPPIS at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) is powered by a software from United States (population: 325.7 million (2017)); ITAS at Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is powered by a software from Canada (population: 326million); Bank Verification Number (BVN) at Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) is powered by a software from Germany (population: 3.9million); RTGS at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is powered by a software from Sweden (population: 9.9million) while most of the software in Nigeria banks are India (population: 1.3billion); and Jordan (population: 9.9billion), and others.”
It is believed that the yearly capital flight as a result of preference for offshore software is estimated to have risen from N200 billion in 2012 to N400 billion. This covers the acquisition and maintenance of the software used in both the public and private sectors.
The ISPON chief also carpeted the Federal Government for not paying SystemSpecs, owners of Remita that is driving the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the government.
He said: “It is important also that the sanctity of contracts and intellectual property is respected as a key contributor to the growth of software development in Nigeria, and by extension help to greatly position our software as globally successful products.
“We need to celebrate our successes. For instance, a member of ISPON, SystemSpecs, which is doing so well for Nigeria through its Remita solution that powers the Federal Government’s TSA, is not being celebrated or recognised. For a solution achieving so much by contributing a lot to the progress of this nation, it is sad to hear recently that they have not been paid for almost two years.
“According to reports in national dailies, there are plans to frustrate them out of a project they championed, laboured for and innovated in Nigeria. The question is: does the government deal with its current suppliers of foreign software this same way? Or would government risk systems failure by the withdrawal of services by such foreign software vendors?”
According to him, government should lead in the support of the ICT industry, and particularly by deliberately supporting made-in-Nigeria software and discourage acts capable of undermining the growth and advancement of the sector.
According to him, technology is already driving diverse facets of peoples’ daily lives and would continue to take over even more, hence the need to localise with indigenous technology to achieve the desired growth as an independent nation.
Emadoye, who is completing his tenure as president of ISPON soon, said: “In the last two years of my time in the saddle of ISPON’s leadership, one of the major challenges we have found and consistently tackled is the preference for foreign software by government and private firms, even when indigenous software are available and better suited for our clime and environment.”
Realising the implications for the economy, which include job loss for the youth, loss of potential foreign exchange earnings and ultimately the potential demise of the local IT industry, one of the major thrusts of ISPON’s advocacy has been with the Bank of Industry (BoI) to seek its intervention to fund the software industry.