The Association for Information and Communication Technology Local Content, ICTLOCA, has called on the Federal Government to encourage deliberate consumption of local Information and Communication Technology (ICT) goods and services as well as the need to develop local capacity in the country.

Participants at the  2nd ICTLOCA roundtable theme: ICT Local Content: Dissecting Challenges and Proffering Solutions, noted with growing concern that a lot of companies are not aware of the Local Content Act and as such have not been able to tap into the opportunities it offers.

From trust issues with regard to consuming made in Nigeria products to laws not being customized to fit the reality on the ground, government is said to have a lot to do, to help promote local content.

Speaking, the Secretary of the association, Adebunmi Akinbo said the association is deliberate in its efforts at creating a platform for opportunities to discuss issues, and come up with possible solutions to the lingering problem associated with consuming locally made products, especially in the ICT space.

He added that Nigerians need to to be a little more patriotic, as we continue in our innovative drive.

In her keynote speech, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NiRA, Edith Udeagu, noted that Nigerians need to develop trust in the solutions which are local made or produced.

Citing an example with the Oil and gas industry, she said for the greater part of the last four decades, the Nigerian oil and gas industry had been dominated by major international oil companies with large numbers of expatriate workers being deployed to carry out projects in various onshore and offshore locations in the country.

Udeagu said the preponderance of expatriate workers had resulted in paucity of jobs, skills development, capacity building, and utilisation for the indigenous workforce and in the long run, a lack of sustained national economic development.

Making reference to NOGICD Act, Executive Order 3, among others, Udeagu said effective implementation of the above Order, Act and policies should result in the deliberate utilisation and patronage of local ICT goods and services by Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) of government.

“We have to begin from somewhere. Even when it comes to registering domain names, Nigerians prefer to host internationally, when you can host locally for as low as N1000, where the .ng is our identity on the internet.”

“You find Nigerians who have countries abroad using the domain of those countries when hosting their sites but it’s not the case in Nigeria. We’ll continue to appreciate the efforts of Mrs Omobola Johnson who made sure that government institutions and agencies hosted locally by using the .gov.ng.”

She noted that Nigeria is yet to internalise what is available to us, while calling for collaboration and the understanding of the NOGIC Act and the opportunities for ICT practitioners.

In the communiqué issued at the end of the roundtable, the conference, among other things, wants NCDMB to ensure that the websites of Nigerian companies bidding for contracts must be hosted locally and that they use a .ng domain name.

ICTLOCA also charged NCDMB to provide access to yearly Nigerian Content Performance Report relating to ICT contracts in the oil and gas industry and other relevant information that will assist the association.

The body urged NITDA to certify local ICT Software practitioners and software vendors as well as monitoring of local content laws and policies of government on the promotion of local content in ICT by CPN, NITDA, NCC and other relevant government agencies.

It urged NCDMB to maintain a database of the formal and informal ICT skills and capabilities, with open (statistics) data access to all stakeholders, stressing the need for government, through the NCDMB, to identify, support and fund young innovators in the ICT industry and implement intervention programmes to correct the identified skills/competence gap.

ICTLOCA wants NCDMB to collaborate with it and NCCF-ICT to immediately conduct a survey to determine the quantum of ICT goods and services utilised in the sector, the percentage provided by Nigerians and foreigners and the skill set required majorly by local ICT practitioners to undertake the provisions of ICT goods and services in the sector.

It however called on NCDMB in collaboration with NITDA, NCC and other relevant government agencies to support existing ICT hubs to be more efficient, sustainable and relevant to the needs of the industry.