Tech Trends: Reviewing Nigeria’s Growing Software Industry

The President of the Institute of Software Practitioners in Nigeria, Pius Okigbo, believes that significant progress have been made in the Nigerian software industry.

Okigbo was the guest of Channels TV’s Infotech programme, Tech Trends.

He credited government policies for the improvement as well as the general emphasis on the local content policy, although he expects more to be done.

“In terms of enforcement (of the policies), I wouldn’t put it in terms of strict enforcement.

“However there is some very strong awareness and understanding on the need to address local content particularly in the oil and gas space. In the financial services, we hope that that shift would begin at some point.

“When I say financial services, I’m not referring to just banks, I’m also referring to insurance companies and other financial institutions.

“So overtime there will be some greater emphasis on local content and luckily with the economic situation as it is today we are going to have to look inward for solutions because looking for the dollar to do things is going to be a nightmare,” he said.

He emphasized the need for Nigerians to embrace technology to solve management problems and the need for the government to further boost the development of the sector with favourable policies.

He also urged the Nigerian government to learn from Asian countries whose policies have ensured their rapid development in the software industry.