Stakeholders seek greater collaboration among local IT firms
Local information technology firms may continue to play second fiddle to foreign ones except they come together to tackle their challenges, stakeholders have said.
They spoke at one-day IT Chief Executives summit organised by the Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria in Lagos on Friday.
According to the forum, some areas where industry stakeholders need greater collaboration, is in the production and branding of locally-made computers and software.
According to the Managing Director, Connect Technologies, Mr. Chris Uwaje, local computer makers need to reduce the number of activities that make up their production processes and outsource others.
He said, “Nigerian Original Equipment Manufacturers are doing several jobs together. This includes design, analysis, coding, testing, documentation and marketing. This should not be so.”
He said this situation called for them to specialize and farm out responsibilities to others so that they could become better in such areas.
The Provost of the Nigerian Computer Society, Mr. Abimbola Salako, said since the final prices of computers were determined by the unit prices of components, local manufacturers could place orders for them together so that they could get volume discounts and subsequently deliver products at more competitive prices.
He said the computer was made up of hundreds components which were produced by various firms and that the situation whereby local manufacturers were ‘doing-it-all-alone’was not beneficial.
Responding, the Managing Director of Omatek Computers, Mrs. Florence Seriki, said her firm had already outsourced some jobs.
She said the production of computer cases done by her firm had been outsourced to Vitafoam Nigeria Limited.
The forum also called on ITAN and the NCS to work with members and the government to ensure that local IT firms got a greater percentage of government IT jobs.
They said government’s policy mandating its ministries, departments and agencies to buy local brands must be better enforced so that its purpose could achieved.
Stakeholders said government’s local content policy in the oil and gas sector must also be expanded to include IT products.
They noted that many of the multinationals were remitting foreign exchange out of the country unnecessarily through patronage of foreign brands and their very limited use of locally software.
The President of the Nigerian Internet Group, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, noted that Nigerian software firms needed to be involved in the sales of local hardware.
According to him, some applications could be developed and added to the computers at such prices that would not negatively impact on their affordability.
Ajayi also called on the National Information Technolgy Development Agency to conduct a study to determine the true state of IT development in Nigeria.
According to him, conflicting figures used in the sector were due to the lack of reliable studies.
He said such a study must identify the number of Internet users, which he noted, had been growing steadiliy over the past five years.
They spoke at one-day IT Chief Executives summit organised by the Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria in Lagos on Friday.
According to the forum, some areas where industry stakeholders need greater collaboration, is in the production and branding of locally-made computers and software.
According to the Managing Director, Connect Technologies, Mr. Chris Uwaje, local computer makers need to reduce the number of activities that make up their production processes and outsource others.
He said, “Nigerian Original Equipment Manufacturers are doing several jobs together. This includes design, analysis, coding, testing, documentation and marketing. This should not be so.”
He said this situation called for them to specialize and farm out responsibilities to others so that they could become better in such areas.
The Provost of the Nigerian Computer Society, Mr. Abimbola Salako, said since the final prices of computers were determined by the unit prices of components, local manufacturers could place orders for them together so that they could get volume discounts and subsequently deliver products at more competitive prices.
He said the computer was made up of hundreds components which were produced by various firms and that the situation whereby local manufacturers were ‘doing-it-all-alone’was not beneficial.
Responding, the Managing Director of Omatek Computers, Mrs. Florence Seriki, said her firm had already outsourced some jobs.
She said the production of computer cases done by her firm had been outsourced to Vitafoam Nigeria Limited.
The forum also called on ITAN and the NCS to work with members and the government to ensure that local IT firms got a greater percentage of government IT jobs.
They said government’s policy mandating its ministries, departments and agencies to buy local brands must be better enforced so that its purpose could achieved.
Stakeholders said government’s local content policy in the oil and gas sector must also be expanded to include IT products.
They noted that many of the multinationals were remitting foreign exchange out of the country unnecessarily through patronage of foreign brands and their very limited use of locally software.
The President of the Nigerian Internet Group, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, noted that Nigerian software firms needed to be involved in the sales of local hardware.
According to him, some applications could be developed and added to the computers at such prices that would not negatively impact on their affordability.
Ajayi also called on the National Information Technolgy Development Agency to conduct a study to determine the true state of IT development in Nigeria.
According to him, conflicting figures used in the sector were due to the lack of reliable studies.
He said such a study must identify the number of Internet users, which he noted, had been growing steadiliy over the past five years.
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