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Frank: No conscious effort to develop ICT in Nigeria

By Kelvin Ebiri
13 November 2016   |   3:01 am
A reliable statistics may not be readily available.  But, the truth is that if you look at it in terms of hardware and software, we have made inroads in the area of software.
Hilary Frank

Hilary Frank

Hilary Frank, an expert in mobile and high speed telecommunication who teaches Computer Science at the Kenule Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, Rivers State, told KELVIN EBIRI, that while Nigerians have demonstrated expertise in terms of software development, tailored to specific needs, the country’s infrastructural and educational deficit remain a major stumbling block to her deriving the immense benefits ICT offers.

How much of ICT equipment can be said to be locally sourced?
A reliable statistics may not be readily available.  But, the truth is that if you look at it in terms of hardware and software, we have made inroads in the area of software. Nigerians have demonstrated expertise in terms of software development, which is even more beneficial to Nigeria and Africa. Our industry and development cannot depend on the use of foreign software because some of these software are not tailored to our specific needs. But when software is developed by indigenous people, they are made to suit their specific needs. So, in terms of software, even though our software may not  have attained global standard, we are beginning to make software that are being used across Africa. We can really generate revenue in the area of software development. Some of the software developed locally are mainly for industries.

Most of the software we use in our banking industry are developed or created locally. There are also educational software, which we use in schools that are developed locally. Of course, there are limitations in terms of hardware. We don’t have industries that manufacture hardware component and so, we source almost all of our hardware outside of the country and so, it is a revenue drain for Nigeria. If we go by what the former President Olusegun Obasanjo had said that we should try to develop our ICT equipment locally, I think it will help us, especially at this time we are facing economic recession. Nigerians should jettison the idea of relying on foreign technology, and be prepared to use locally made software. They may not be good as those of the industrialised world, but we must start from somewhere. If we don’t sustain our effort in developing and making software, we just cannot grow. We must cultivate the culture to use our locally made ICT equipment.

What is your assessment of government’s local content directive on ICT?
We have clearly not seen how the local content directive has been beneficial to Nigerians in terms of ICT, because there are some Nigerians who have been able to make ICT equipment, but if you look at what they did and classify it as innovation, it is truly small for us to fully developed to the point where we can be talking about local content usage. Somebody made a keyboard and put the naira symbol there and say it is a Nigerian computer. Such innovation is really small to leap us into the class of industrialised world. We should really begin to look out for innovation that are useful, beneficial, that are not just academic, but something that we can apply for our own benefit

Why has it been difficult for Nigeria to successfully venture into hardware manufacturing?
It is obvious. How can we go into manufacturing when we don’t even have the basic requirement for industrialisation, which is electricity. We don’t have the industry to support the creation of such hardware component. I met a Nigerian in Lagos who wants to create a company that will be designing circuit board. And if we are able to design this circuit board we will not be depending on circuit board from abroad to make phones, for instance. Right now, we cannot make phones because every phone must come with a circuit board and every computer must have such board. But there is a conspiracy. He has been trying to buy equipment for his company from the Chinese, but the Chinese know that giving out this equipment will lead to industrialisation, and then it will hamper their own market, so they have been reluctant to sell him the equipment.

They would rather prefer we buy the finished products from China than giving you the equipment that you will use to manufacture them locally. Apparently, from what a Chinese friend told me, it will be difficult for him to find a Chinese company that will be willing to sell them the equipment required for his company to take off. The implication of selling the equipment to manufacture of circuit board here will mean that we now begin to manufacture phones and even guns that have such board and anything that can be programmed or programmable, such as, remote control and so on. If we begin to develop that locally, it means we will not have need to go outside to buy computers, phones, television sets and a lot of other electronic devices.

Though the manpower is here, we do not have equipment and industry to make hardware component. We have Nigerians who are working in ICT industries scattered all over the world, we can pull our human resources to establish such industries here, but we do not have the equipment to make hardware ICT component locally. The ICT world is moving so fast that by 2020, there is what they call Internet of Things, where every device will have an IP address, which means that every device can be connected to Internet. With Internet of Things, every device can communicate with each other without a human interface. The industrialised world is also being careful not to let out their technology for others to use and develop by themselves. So, Nigerians must be able up their game to develop ICT hardware.

Is government giving the required incentive to drive local content?
We cannot say the government has not been making some effort. Organisations like the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) are trying to set up innovation hubs, which is called incubation centres for young people who have skills to develop application, such as mobile application. But, the drive is very low and the consciousness or better still, the awareness they are creating cannot match the need. So, it will look as though the government is not really doing anything. It is worthy to also say that the effort of the various governments is not synergised. The Federal Government may be doing something, but the various states and Local Governments may not be making any conscious effort towards the development of the ICT sector. Government is one of the major consumers of the ICT, but not really helping to produce ICT equipment like hardware and software locally.

If government can synergise and make conscious effort to develop the sector it will really help Nigeria. I will give you an instance, in 1961, late American President J.F. Kennedy, tasked scientists in America to take a man to the moon and back before the end of the decade. As at that time, the technology to take man to the moon and back was not really there. We will recall that there was a rivalry between America and U.S.S.R in terms of space technology. Even though the technology to take man to the moon and back was not there, American scientists went to work. And before the end of the decade, in 1969, America had landed a man in the moon and brought him back safely on earth. What we are saying is that our government should be conscious of the development in ICT and realise the huge potential benefits the country can derive from it, which is bigger than the oil sector. Government should consciously invest in it. One may ask, how can they invest? They should ensure that our education institutions are adequately funded. Research and development must be sustained and deepened in this sector. All these armies of youths committing crimes, we can actually use them to support the development of ICT. If you go to a place in Lagos they call Computer Village and if you come to Port Harcourt to a place called Ogbonuabli, these are places where you will see young men doing innovative things in ICT, yet, government is not harnessing such potentials. I think if we do, we will turn around our ICT situation and begin to go in the direction President Obasanjo had envisaged for Nigeria.

What are likely impediments to the growth of the ICT sector in Nigeria?
Let’s look at computer science for instance. What we have in our computer science curriculum is truly outdated. But they continue to use such curriculum to teach university students. They have continued to use programming languages that are not in use anywhere any more, with old and outdated applications, programme and software. So, we are not preparing the young people for innovation. They come out of university educated, but they are not useful. Before they go into ICT industry, they have to be retrained. We have a dichotomy between the industrial need and what is being taught in school. That is a major stumbling block on our path to tap from the immense benefits ICT offers.  Our universities are not properly funded, so education institutions cannot sustain such drive because of the huge funds required. But we have intervention agencies like The Tertiary Education Trust Fund that provides funding for research and development. The truth is that even with government intervention agencies, including NDDC venture to provide funds for research and development, the funds are misapplied or misused.

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