Past presidents task new NCS NEC on IT policy, local content development

The past presidents of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), in Lagos tasked the incoming National Executive Council (NEC) of NCS, on the need to strengthen campaign on Information Technology (IT) Policy advocacy and local content development, which they said, were key to the growth of the computing profession and for the national development of the country.

The egg-heads gave the advice during the official handing over of the mantle of leadership to the new NEC in Lagos, following its successful election during this year’s international conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM), which held in Gombe last month.

The immediate past president, Professor Adesola Aderounmu, who handed over to Prof. Adesina Simon Sodiya, stressed the need for full advocacy on IT policy formulation and implementation by government. “The new NEC should be able to engage government in the right IT policy implementation that will help the country to grow, especially in the area of local content policy implementation .

“Local content policy implementation is key and if we do not get it right, there will be a lot of challenges for the country.

We started advocacy in the area of local content during my two terms tenure of four years but not much was achieved in the area of local content development and implementation. We need the right IT policy that will drive local content in the country. By local content, I mean indigenous software. If we are encouraged to develop local content in the area of software development, it will go a long way to boost employment in the country,” Aderounmu advised.

The new INEC of NCS also need to focus on incubation centres that will provide the enabling environment, which will address the challenge of using IT to address national issues.

In the last three years, we have added over 2,500 members to NCS and I want the new INEC to continue in the membership drive, Aderounmu added.

Other past presidents like Alhaji Ladi Ogunye, Dr. Chris Nwannenna and Prof. Charles Uwadia, spoke on the collaboration and the need to use technology to drive processes like meetings and elections.

Responding to the advice from his predecessors, Sodiya promised to even go beyond the advice and tasks, with a promise to carry out advocacy on the need for government agencies to drive governance with IT.

“We have identified some government agencies that are not IT complaint and we are ready to take them up on IT governance.

I work in an academic environment, a university to be precise, and every five years government brings assert declaration forms for us to fill and we kept filling the same form. If government is serious about fighting corruption, then it should automate most of its processes especially the assert declaration form filling.

We cannot develop as a nation if government processes are not automated, and to achieve this, government must deploy IT in governance to boost efficiency and productivity,” Sodiya said.

At NCS, we will ensure we give direction to government and also ensure that proper implementation is carried out in the area of using IT to drive governance, Sodiya added.