What can be done to draw the Government's attention towards developing ICT especially in Web and Mobile

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Is the government scared, Ignorant or non-knowledgeable about how ICT, web and Mobile is already changing the world and building economies?

Aren’t they thinking of supporting developers to take the nation to the next level.

Personally, the only person I respect in this regard in the history of Government, who understood these things the most was Fmr. Hon, Minister Omobola Johnson, I just wish Buhari continues with her.

NCC keeps on levying Telcos millions of Naira, they are not looking at implementing developmental policies for the talented developers towards National development.

Whether we like it or not Rebtel, Nymgo, Magic jack and the rest are competitions to the Nigerian Telcos because they have brought developers into what they are doing and some Nigerians use these Apps because they are cheap. They even now charge in Naira because they know there is a large market here.

Who regulates them? NCC keeps on enforcing registration of SIM cards and blocking of SIM for none registration of lines, while some people don’t need to go to any Telco shop to waste time, sitting down to register or buy any SIM card.
Some Nigerians have joined the developed world in buying virtual UK, US and foreign numbers on line. People now place GSM calls from Mobile Apps and Web browser.

If NCC claims they are enforcing great policies who then regulates this people using this services.
The Telcos can’t give good CX let alone UX (that is when they upgrade to implementing Telco APIs).

When a Telco tries to integrate 10 or more different Equipments and software from different manufacturers to offer services to Nigerians and other Africans, what will be the result; bad services.

I am just a bit focused on Telcos because according to GSMA (GSM Association) reports for Africa, Telcos contribute a very significant part of Africa’s GDP, implying that a lot depends on them for now.

we need to build technology capacity internally, Telcos in developed world are already talking about SDN, NFV, WebRTC, VoLTE, and all these technologies are centred around developers like most of us, isn’t it obvious we are a bit backward here.

I think we need to step out and make our statement with our technology skills, they will soon understand that people with our kind of Skills cannot be ignored but used to move a nation forward.

My take is this: Government bodies should stop being dinosaurs and recruit young brains like some of us here to make the difference.

Lets promote and build our skills on Telecom APIs, IoT, Bitcoin etc in order to prepare ourselves to take on the future.

These technologies are disruptive and revolutionary and can help in pushing an economy towards sustainability if fashioned towards local contents.

please feel free to share your thoughts…

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As much as I agree she did a good job the truth is that she isn’t the only one that can do the job. She has done ‘well’ but so many other people could do equally as well. I would love someone like gbenga sesan but Nigeria has been so locked in choosing people based on ‘who i sabi’ but we believe it would change very soon.
We have to wait and see if we got the ‘CHANGE’ we really want.
The only thing to do for now is to put the government on its toes by thriving without them. Budgit, hotels.ng, the chude jideonwo’s, the kola oyeneyins etc. We cause a revolution and make them recognize they need us the young minds.

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Last year I attended the Raw Materials Expo in Lagos.

(My pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100800783755635.1073741838.90410925&type=1&l=71aac1ee1a)

While I was walking around, I ran into the Director for Technology Incubation Center in Nigeria.

(her pic: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100800790197725&l=9023e1407a)

As soon as she learned I’m a programmer, she invited me to their office at Pen Cinema, Agege. They offered me to incubate me, give a lot of assistance and connect me with business owners and all sorts of people.

Everyone there was awesome, the extent of their facilities is impressive, it’s free and there’s a ton of things they offer for people who don’t even touch computers. Access to machinery and labs. Etc.

What I’m saying is the government knows and cares.

I was blown away by the level of knowledge of the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Abdu Bulama.

(His pic: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100800791525065&l=6104e1d337)

Super smart and got the impression he is capable enough to make Nigeria a better place. He was approachable, and I think there’s a lot more people like him and her out there.

Instead of feeling these old people have no clue or aren’t interested, try going out there. You’d be really surprised by the true state of things.

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Hey akamaozu i am really wowed by your experience but not to be a party pooper, I have met state government staff who have no clue how to use a computer system and the sad part is that they are the heads of Technical driven Parastatals. I don’t think we would just come and ‘insult’ people (which we are not) if we haven’t had experience. We need a fair mix of youth and experience to make the tech space in Nigeria thrive. DavidEjikeme mentioned something about service delivery mainly in telecommunications. MTN and the rest can’t give good service if people who don’t know what are in government that’s the whole point.

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Don’t get me wrong, I’ve felt what you’re feeling. In many ways I still do.

At my core I believe business people move the world forward; government just keeps them from destroying everything.

I’ve always believed governments are slow and don’t know what’s up.

It wasn’t til my visit to the Raw Materials Expo that it occurred to me that maybe there are very intelligent and hard-working people in the government but they have no idea how to get their ideas out or attract the right people to work with them. That’s a completely different problem from not knowing or not wanting to do.

Since then, I don’t automatically default to thinking the issue is government. It could be that we aren’t aware of the right people to be talking to and how approachable they are.

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