Expert urges government to leverage on ICT sector
NAN-H-61
ICT
By Constance Athekame
Abuja, Oct. 21, 2016 (NAN) Mr Rex Abitogun, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert, on Friday urged the Federal Government to leverage on the enormity of wealth lying on ICT sector to boost the economy.
Abitogun, also Chairman, Nigeria Computer Society, Abuja Chapter, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the society’s Bi-Monthly meeting.
“If you want to get out of recession ICT professionals needs to be in the fore-front because we can help our people and government to develop solution that would keep the money in the country.
“Most of the time, you find out that people buy applications from outside without an input from the local professionals.
“When you have people in-house, they can advise the government on areas that will affect people positively within the country.
“And equally build our future leaders to embrace ICT and this can get us out of recession,’’ he said.
However, Abitogun said that government was not doing enough for the profession, adding that ICT is globally recognised and nothing could be done without it.
“But it is a pity that in our country, we don’t take ICT professionals and profession seriously. We see ICT as call centres in some ministries or departments.
“You must spend money to build capacity of your ICT professionals to get good results and FIRS has just shown us how they are using ICT to increase the revenue target of the federal government,’’ the chairman said.
Abitogun also called on government to create an office of Chief Information Officer of the Federation that would be in the fore front of advising government on ICT policies.
He said that by creating such an office, it will help move the country forward as ICT professionals would be able work together to help government to grow.
Abitogun explained that the society’s function was to bring members and some non-members together to impact them with knowledge,
“We provide platform for people to network with each other and equally to grow.
“We have the academia, we have those from the government, we have students from University of Abuja, we have captains of industry and we discuss things that will help government to grow,’’ he said. (NAN)
COA/AOM/MST
Edited by Abdullahi Mohammed/Muhammad Suleiman Tola