THE federal government of Nigeria has inaugurated a 15-member committee to evolve a policy document on the development of the software sector in the country.  Professor Cleopas Angaye, director-general of the National Information Development Agency (Nitda), who inaugurated the committee in Abuja, said the committee has 12 weeks to conclude its work.
Angaye expressed the hope that the contributions of the committee would be critical to the vision of making Nigeria one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020. He said the committee had become necessary as global economic activities were closely linked with the production and utilisation of information and knowledge. Information, he said, had become the engine of economic growth in the developed economies.
He added that business and government had also moved its core services from personal interaction to remote and digital interactions noting that a country like India has identified the role of software development and has deliberately created policies for the development of the sector, pointing out that information technology industry in India, primarily powered by software, has emerged as a $75 billion sector by 2010.
Angaye noted that Nigeria has similar conditions like the Asian country stressing that “it would not be far fetched if we try to equal or even better the achievements of India in the software export revolution.” Some of the policies to be developed by the committee, according to him, include the design of appropriate strategies for promoting the local demand for software.
Other policies include the development of guidelines that would ensure the promotion of local software as well as creation of incentives for software developers and investors. The committee would also determine the financial requirement to develop world-class quality software by Nigerians. Anyaye, who said the committee members include stakeholders from the private and public sectors, advised members of the public to air their views on the policy.
Responding on behalf of the members, Professor Charles Akinyokun, committee chairman, said the development of the sector would help to boost revenue generation. Akinyokun said countries like India, Israel and Malaysia had concentrated on software related products and services as their major source of revenue.  The other members of the committee are Mrs Funke Araba, Mrs Chineze Odunze, Mr Oderemi Olugbenga, Professor John Obaro as well as Mr Sikiru Shehu.