The presentation of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, at the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is truly forward-thinking.
He emphasised the route the French government and people intended to go when he stated, among other good initiatives, that the French government would make innovation the centrepiece of the economy of France, with massive investments in research and development.
He did not stop there. He went on to say that the French government would create a $10bn fund to finance development and innovation programmes, especially in disruptive technologies.
Investment in digital economy is the area that many serious world players are focusing now and it is a clarion call on emerging economies like ours to take a cue from.
All stakeholders in the Nigerian tech project, which consists of public and private sectors, need to formulate the right policy for the IT industry, with a view to having it leapfrog development in the country in more ways than one.
One of the biggest challenges I see is that of inconsistency in the area of policy formulation and implementation. This has seriously affected the industry as well as entrepreneurs who have been and keep working hard to survive in a difficult terrain. Formulating and implementing the right IT policy is of utmost importance in order to fully take advantage of today’s disruptive technologies.
Before we can chart a new course for IT policy in Nigeria, we need to first know where we are coming from, where we are at the moment, where we want to get to and what is required to enable us to be at par with other nations that are taking the issue of IT development seriously.
The Founder of CWG Plc, Austin Okere, one of the pioneer IT companies in Nigeria, and co-founder of Ausso Leadership Academy, is of the opinion that, the IT industry in Nigeria, is still evolving.
According to him, what we used to call IT industry in the past were companies that were merely selling IT products.
He said, “That you are selling IT products doesn’t make you an IT company. The closest we came were some companies that were into software development. Now that we are beginning to see some technology companies evolving, we should be serious now more than ever before to formulate and implement the right IT policies that will enable the industry achieve its maximum potential.”
I am aware that many countries across the world including neighbouring countries such as Ghana and — Finish Reading on the Punch
