As the Buhari-led
administration begins to steer the affairs of the nation currently
facing a massive revenue crisis, near collapse of power infrastructure,
as well as the unending scarcity of petroleum products, technology and
its massive adoption in both the public and private sectors could
provide feasible shortcuts to achieving greater efficiency in governance
and the economy.
According to the manifesto of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), the Buhari-led administration will take a
tough stance on corruption,as it looks to tackle the problems of
insecurity, unemployment and other pertinent issues confronting the
nation.
Industry experts have however urged the
new administration to follow the path of India, in its quest to
diversify the economy away from oil.
According to the experts, the phenomenal
success of India’s software export sector and the attendant economic
spillovers are indications of Information Technology’s (IT) role in
economic growth and other dimensions of social development.
The IT sector has increased its
contribution to India’s GDP from 1.2 percent in 1998 to 7.5 percent in
2012. According to NASSCOM, the sector aggregated revenues of $147
billion in 2015, where export revenue stood at $99 billion and domestic
at $48 billion, growing by over 13 percent.
The Computer Professionals Registration
Council of Nigeria (CPN) says technological innovation and Information
Communication Technologies (ICTs) represent a veritable tool for
developing nations to foster economic development, improve levels of
healthcare, education, as well as address gender issues within society.
“Nigeria’s ICT sector is reputed to be
one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. With the current
contribution of 9.58 percent to the Nigerian GDP, the ICT industry will
witness the emergence of local startups that will add significant value
to the Nigerian economy in 2015”, Imo Ukpong, chief executive officer at
Apace Innovative Solutions said.
According Ukpong, with sustained
government interventions and programmes specifically geared towards
creating the enabling environment needed to attract private sector
investments, ICT contributions to the overall economy will ultimately
surpass the oil revenues, given the slide in oil prices globally.
In an interview with BusinessDay
recently, Collins Onuegbu, executive vice chairman of Signal Alliance,
an indigenous systems integrator, urged the new government to develop a
functional ICT ecosystem to sustain its economic development.
“The fact remains that the outlook is
brighter for Nigeria, all we need is to make our institutions to work
and give ICT a major role in the expanding economy. We believe that
given more roles to ICT will make the Nigerian economy further lead the
African region”, he said. Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic
development around the world, experts have said. In countries such as
Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia, micro-entrepreneurs generate 38 percent of
the gross domestic product. Analysis from the World Bank in 2011
indicates that small businesses create a disproportionate share of new
jobs.
They generate new ideas, new business
models, and new ways of selling goods and services. “One of the biggest
problems we have had in Nigeria is unemployment and we continue to shout
about it everywhere. Everybody now looks to the new government to solve
it, but we believe that they alone cannot solve this challenge”, said
Onuegbu.
Speaking with BusinessDay, while
announcing the 2015 edition of the CPN organised IT Professionals’
Assembly in Abuja, Sikiru Shehu, registrar of CPN, expressed the view
that one the fundamental challenges the new government faces is
diversifying the economy.
“With proper deployment of IT for wealth
creation, this problem can be quickly resolved. “In every sector of our
national life, be it power, agriculture, finance and economy and
others, there is massive corruption. But, proper deployment of ICT can
bring down corruption to its minimum. If there is no corruption, you can
channel greater resources towards developing infrastructure and
creating jobs”, he explained.
Shehu said a massive adoption of ICTs
for governance will help the present administration to plug all the
loopholes where the wealth of the nation has previously been frittered
away.”We believe that it is time the country reflects on the
developments in the IT Industry to ensure that the vast resources and
enormous potentials available in the industry are used to address
daunting national challenges.
“Market observers are all agreed that
mobile applications and digital enabled-businesses present a veritable
platform for wealth creation. The total number of telephone lines
currently connected on mobile networks in Nigeria has increased from
188.8 million in the last quarter 2014 to 192.1 million in January 2015,
according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
As at February 2015, Nigeria, had 83
million mobile data users, says the regulator. Latest estimates on
smartphone adoption in Nigeria put the number at around 20 million
devices. In view of this, experts have identified mobile apps
development as a veritable platform for wealth creation and revenue
generation. Government-backed initiatives and programmes that lower
barriers to innovative ICT startups will result in more investments in
local ICT businesses. Such entrants, according to market observers will
grow and get big results with value chain creation.
Key policy thrusts like market protection
for locally-manufactured IT products, generation of local market for,
and increased consumption of local ICT products, services and solutions
through government procurement programmes that incentivise special
categories of businesses – like Women ICT SMEs – will assist create that
value chain. Various government administrations in Nigeria have had
their attempts at improving the state of public health in the countries
for the past decades, with attendant opportunities, challenges and
achievements.
Progress, however, had seemed very slow
in coming. Consider the use of life expectancy as a measure of the state
of the effectiveness of the health sector of a nation.
In a World Health Organisation (WHO)
report released in the first half of 2009, the life expectancy in
Nigeria was noted to have moved from 47 to 49 years. When compared to
other countries where the life expectancy go as long as 83 years, as
Japan, and how well they are doing based on life expectancy measures, it
can be seen that a lot more remains to be desired in the state of
health care and services delivery in Nigeria. There exists the great
need now to put together all the resources available to make the nation
able to leapfrog into the arena of worthy achievement in the delivery of
adequate health care and services to its people as befits the realities
of the new millennium. One set of resources that must now be so
deployed is the use of ICT for development in Nigeria’s health sector.
Ben Uzor
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