SUPPORTING the recent declaration by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, that government sould explore the opportunities provided by software development in Nigeria, the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) has come up with a strategy that could enhance the development of indigenous software in the country.Specifically, ISPON, earlier this year, had called for measures that will help the country stem the tide of the influx of foreign software, which daily results into huge capital flights from the country.To achieve this feat, ISPON has instituted a national software competition for Nigerian Tertiary Institutions that will allow creative Nigerians to brainstorm and come up with applications that will drive the local content initiative of the country.According to the Association, aside other emoluments, which include a N1 million gift prize to winners in the different categories, winners will also be helped to create market and acceptability for their software and applications. ISPON added that top three winners would be opportune to have international exposures.ISPON posited that, developing a National Software Strategy is fundamental to the growth of the economy, stressing innovation represents the mainstream of emerging economies and future businesses.According to it, its activities are central to global trade and the generation of foreign currency. It noted that for development policy makers and for entrepreneurs, it is hard to resist harnessing and expending software capacity to create massive employment with a critical focus to building an export industry.Speaking to The Guardian recently, the President of ISPON, Dr. Chris Uwaje said there is an invisible Developers Valley out there! According to him, the Developers' Valley is a conceptual model to enhance larger participation and convergence of emerging software developers by pooling them together and encouraging them to share knowledge and resources with each other and consequently address such vital issues as development process, procedure, standards, quality, documentation, and so on.Uwaje explained that lessons learned from Software development life cycle and activity indicators have clearly demonstrated that the central battleground for global competitiveness will be in National Software Strategy Domain.'The critical mass of such strategic development policies and implementation will be focused on Mobile Technology Services, e-Government, e-Transactions, e-Business, e-education, e-entertainment and Cybersecurity amongst others. These and other 21st Century critical development issues present a great challenge and opportunity windows for the Africa Continent, where Nigeria represents a very important factor,' he stated.Uwaje said the National Software Competition was informed by the strategic imperative to anchor Nigeria's aspirations for global competitiveness in the Knowledge Economy on building capacity in knowledge industries such as software.He explained that with 60 per cent of Nigeria's population under 30 years of age, ISPON believes that the dream of Vision 20:2020 is realisable only by accelerated efforts to build and unlock the innovation capabilities of the country's youth, who have propelled Nigeria over just four years to becoming the 10th largest internet user base in the world, according to statistics obtained from World Internet Statistics of August 2011.In order to harness the breadth and depth of the youth population, Uwaje said the need to get them positively and creatively engaged couldn't be over-emphasised.He said about 32 tertiary institutions have applied. These include, University of Lagos, ABU College of Agriculture, Kabba, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State, Anambra State University, Bells University Ota, Covenant University Ota, Delta State University, Federal College of Education Okene, Federal Polytechnic Idah, Federal University of Technology Lokoja, Federal University of Technology Akure, The Polytechnic Ibadan, Ilorin Polytechnic, Kogi State Polytechnic, Kogi State University, Lagos City Polytechnic, Madonna University Okija, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Obafemi Awolowo University, Paul University Awka, Polytechnic of Sokoto, Salem University Lokoja, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Lagos State Polytechnic, among others.Besides, at a media briefing on Monday on the development, the Chairman, Capacity Building Committee of ISPON, Collins Unegbu said the competition, which comes up on October 28, at Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar, Cross River State is expected to attract an audience of over 1000 youths and will be supported by very formidable sponsorship endorsements from MTN, NITDA, NCC, Visafone, Huawei, CPN, NCS, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and other corporate and institutional top brands.Unegbu, who said the programme was already been discussed before the ministers declaration, said the competition aims to harness the potential skills of young and intelligent minds in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions. 'The program is established to uncover Indigenous Software Development Talents and make them ready for entrepreneurship and global competitiveness in ICT. Entries to the competition are based on completed applications at a special website -www.softwareclubnigeria.org ' where guidelines are available for download with online application forms processing,' he stated.The Director General of NITDA, Dr. Cleopas Angaye in a statement to the conference said in direct response to the challenging mission of the United Nations ICT4D (Information and Communications Technology for Development), the National Software Competition aims to harness the potential skills of young and intelligent minds in Nigeria tertiary institutions.The programme, he said, is established to uncover indigenous software development talents and make them ready for entrepreneurship and global competitiveness in ICT.
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