Expert advocates IT master plan, right policies

The Chairman, Digital Africa, Dr. Evans Woherem, has stressed the need to come up with an IT master Plan and also formulate policies that will encourage information technology development and usage in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Speaking with journalists on the 2018 Digital Africa Conference billed for next month in Abuja, Woherem, who decried the wide digital gap that exist in Africa, stressed the need for government to establish clusters of industries and capitalize in the areas the country have competitive advantage.

Woherem observed that technology is advancing so fast with enormous amount of systems being incubated adding that something must be done urgently to ensure that Africa is not completely left behind.

He said the world has witnessed three industrial revolutions and now on the fourth industrial revolution stressing that Africa must take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and embrace Information Technology as a development driver.

Woherem also stated that the situation can be corrected through right policies by governments targeted towards increasing capacity in order to make improvements.

He said: “There is relationship between IT and development, Africa needs to join the 4th industrial revolution. If we keep at the present speed, it will take us decades to catch up with the rest of the world. “To engender the needed revolution, we need private sector involvement; i also believe there are a lot government needs to do. They need to come out with enabling policies for respective African countries and ensure the polices are implemented.”

He noted that the 2018 conference is an attempt to engage Africa to think back and deeply about the things that derailed the continent and find out things to be done.