‘Nigeria must embrace ICT to build knowledge economy’

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, SystemSpec, John Obaro, has stressed the need to focus on specific areas that could be optimised for national development for the country to move past its recession debacles and build a vibrant economy.

Obaro made the remark recently at the Lagos-Kano Economic and Investment Summit 2018 held at Jubilee Chalets, Epe, Lagos.

In a chat with The Guardian, Obaro stated that for Nigeria to build a strong, vibrant knowledge economy in the twenty first century, the political class must be information communications technology (ICT) friendly for the nation to have a proper ecosystem.

He observed that if the country has the most technically knowledgeable individuals but lack legislative framework to put in place a structure for the development of ICT, professional skills acquired could not stand on its own.

According to him, the country need to nurture integrity, communication skills and team work for a proper ecosystem to be put in place.

Obaro also stressed the need for the education sector to take cognisance of changes and upscale by teaching relevant skills for this generation.

Noting that Nigeria needed to teach people to use systems efficiently in the knowledge economy, Obaro said for instance, the country should focus on optiming payment system to make it easy to make payment, especially tax.

He said that this would boost government revenue generation and help reflate the economy. Obaro also assured that with technology, there would be minimisation of corruption.

He noted that with good technology in place, it becomes more difficult for corruption to persist.