Kabir: We need to encourage local producers

Mrs. Fatima Kabir is the acting Director of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Kaduna State University (KASU), In this interview with SAXONE AKHAINE, Northern Bureau Chief, she spoke on the future of ICT in Nigeria, and why local content development remains germane to the development of the ICT in the country.

What do you think are the challenges in this sector?
There are lots of challenges the country is facing in developing its ICT today. When we talk about local content one of the issues we need to understand is the acceptance, in terms of hardware. We can classify the issues of local content in terms of hardware and software when we talk of ICT. On hardware, Nigerians prefer things that are produced abroad. We don’t value the issue of local production and all that. However, we have had some strides. For example, Zenox computers, OMATEK systems and a few others. When we started in KASU, I know that some Zenox computers were brought as donations to us, people were very reluctant to use them, but with time we adapted and really valued the systems. We need to encourage this sort of local production before we can move and have a proper headway in our ICT.

So, I think acceptance is one, and then there are lots of challenges the manufacturers are facing. Of course, the issue of the economy not been in proper shape, and also getting the raw materials to get production done.

It’s just like it is in name that these things are produced in Nigeria. For the manufacturers, actually the truth is that they merely assemble their products in Nigeria. So, a lot of work needs to be done, to get us to the stage where we would be self-reliant and say that we are proud manufacturers of ICT equipment. On the issue of software, I think we have made better strides in terms of software development. I remember sometimes, particularly with respect to Kaduna State University website, most of these ICT interfaces or platforms were developed by some of our staff and some lecturers in Computer Science department. But, these people need to be encouraged and motivated to keep things going. This is because ICT is an area that really requires the use of talent, time and without such motivation they can easily take their services elsewhere.

In addition to this, we need to get the right infrastructure that we require for ICT to thrive properly. For example, the computer laboratories need to be fully equipped. But, then the other problems come with the subscription of the bandwidths. How do we sustain the internet? Internet is very expensive, especially within the developing countries. I think that is one of our major challenges in the country. And you know, in this modern world without Internet you are nowhere. I think we need to have access to Internet 24/7 in Nigeria. And to sustain this, this is where government has to come in to provide serious intervention by ensuring the provision of broadband Internet for our universities if really we want to catch up with the rest of the world and take our country to greater heights.

Why has it been difficult to raise the present level of local content in our ICT, to save foreign exchange?
The infrastructure, especially power is the bane of our inability to increase the present level of local content. Also, there is the issue raw material. We don’t have industries that will produce the raw materials we need. For example, there is no iron and steel industry in the country to produce basic materials for ICT components. If we have this and we have other basic materials, cheap labour and talented skilled engineers and other professionals, and I also think we need to look at the primary industries that will provide the raw materials for ICT. Like I said earlier, what we still do today is to assemble, we are not producing those parts here. I think government needs to come up with its intervention in the area of hardware production.

I think what could be done is to encourage stakeholders and manufactures with funding, may be soft loans. The government should also look into the development of our iron and steel industry, and encourage plastic industries. This is because some of these things are made with plastic components too. The Bank of Industry (BOI) should be directed to assist in ICT development also.