Latest turbulence in the Nigerian economy
sector and petroleum industry in particular
has made many Nigerians worry about our
respective futures, and think of alternate
routes for development of our country.
Writing for Naij.com , Chinedu Randall, who
is an IT and ICT consultant, explains why
the Federal Government and Nigerians
should pay special attention to the
information technology (IT) field.
“Now that the oil is gone, what should we
do next?” Mr. Chinedu asks and goes on to
clarify,
“Technically, the oil is not yet gone. It still
lies in many parts of the Niger Delta and
the South East region, but its days as the
mainstay of the Nigerian economy and as
the toast of the ever-consumerist world are
clearly numbered . Countries around the
world have already begun to move away
from an overdependence on the liquid gold
(or “the black curse,” as most Nigerians
would say) and look elsewhere for
alternative, less volatile solutions to their
energy needs. Others have successfully
diversified their sources of revenue into
areas like tourism, sports and ICT.
Unfortunately, Nigeria has not been so
foresighted .
“The death knell of the country’s once
vibrant and promising petroleum sector
was finally delivered towards the end of
2013, after several warnings and doomsday
prophesies by leading industry experts and
keen observers alike. Ironically, it was
delivered by none other than what was
once the country’s chief customer and
number one market for crude oil exports,
the United States of America.
“It’s not a coincidence that everything in
that sector went south in the wake of the
shale gas and tight oil boom in the States,
which led them to backtrack and put under
control their previously insatiable thirst for
imported crude oil. Ever so a mono-product
economy dating back to the early 1970s,
Nigeria could not handle the seismic shock
and the several resultant aftershocks. The
economy has since remained in the tank.
“On Tuesday, after spending billions
throughout the year to protect the naira
from tumbling against the major world
currencies, the Central Bank finally
devalued the local currency by 8%. This
devaluation, however, is only but one line
of reflection in a spectrum of the country’s
ailing economy which is yet to recover from
the flu it caught from Uncle Sam’s sneeze.
“This is as bad as it gets for a country that
imports 80% of what it consumes, ranging
from bare necessities like clothes and
staple food to luxurious commodities like
high-end smartphones and automobiles,
and derives a mammoth 90% of its foreign
exchange earnings from the “black
curse” (or the “liquid gold,” for those who
have benefitted immensely from it).
Everywhere there is an economic instability,
it is the poor that suffers and, according to
some debatable statistics, about 100
million Nigerians live below the poverty line
of US$2 per day.
“The implications of this recent devaluation
of the naira are grave for the common man.
A devalued currency is great for a country’s
exports and bad for its imports. A devalued
currency lowers the prices of exported
goods and services, making it cheaper for
consumers in other countries to buy them
and leading to more sales for the exporters.
This is a clear win for people in the export
business, but a loss for the importers. A
devalued currency shoots up the prices of
imported goods and services like cars,
furniture, wheat, millet, apples, clothes,
electronics and the like in the local
markets. This will make it more difficult to
import goods into Nigeria, leading to less
imports and higher selling prices.
“Be that as it may, the current economic
turbulence may be a blessing in disguise . It
should propel the government’s financial
policy makers to explore other possible
areas of growth and expansion . Some
measures, I believe, are already in place to
look into it. The government’s agricultural
sector revolution led by the well-rounded
Akinwunmi Adesina is commendable, and
so is the transport sector reform that has
brought (or promising to bring) the rail
lines back to places like Lagos, Kano, Port
Harcourt, Aba, Enugu and Markurdi. The
aviation sector led by the promising Osita
Chidoka is also doing very well.
“But these are not really the things that
will get the country’s teeming unemployed
youths gainfully employed. Many of them
are clearly not interested in agriculture and
it cannot be forced down their throat, while
the aviation and transport sectors do not
hire people on a regular basis. One area
that is currently and grossly being
overlooked by Nigerians is the Information
Technology (IT), and Information &
Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
“IT, ITeS and ICT is the fastest growing
industry in the world, according to leading
global research firms. Many of the world’s
startups are IT-based and a great number
of them are run by under-30 CEOs. It is a
highly skilled sector that can and should
harvest a lot of Nigeria’s unemployed
youths; it is flexible and highly profitable.
“IT, ITeS and ICT in the United States is a
$700-billion industry; in India it is worth
$120 billion (and directly employs about
10 million Indians), and in China it is even
worth a lot more at $493 billion. Alibaba, a
Chinese e-commerce group, in September
recorded the biggest ever stock market
initial public offering (IPO) in history, worth
about $25 billion. Its owner, Jack Ma ,
previously an unknown quantity and former
English teacher from China, is now an IT
billionaire, worth around $29 billion, and
richer than Africa’s richest man Aliko
Dangote .
“The world’s richest man Bill Gates, worth
in excess of $82 billion, made most of his
money from his IT enterprise Microsoft . The
world’s 5th richest man, Larry Ellison ,
made his money from his IT company
Oracle , and today he is worth $52 billion,
according to Forbes. Other tech billionaires
who all richer than Africa’s richest man
include Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook , the
Google guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page ,
and Amazon ‘s Jeff Bezos.
“All these CEOs run IT firms that are much
more valuable than any Nigerian company
you can think of. Facebook is a 100-
billion-dollar company, Google is worth a
lot more, and so is Apple, International
Business Machines (IBM), Hewlett-Packard
(HP), Amazon, Samsung, Oracle and
Microsoft.
“IT and ICT are untapped goldmines that I
would love the Nigerian government and
Nigerians as a whole to look into and
invest their time, energy and money in. The
possibilities are potentially limitless and
the returns can be very great as well.”
What’s best for Nigeria’s economy right
now?


http://www.naij.com/332964-information-technology-nigeria-solution.html

Impressive. I have always been an advocate of leveraging on the networking power of the internet and all other attendance benefits it offers. Without the creative ability to annex the power of InfoTech, many would be lost in the scheme of things.

eworker:
Impressive. I have always been an advocate of leveraging on the networking power of the internet and all other attendance benefits it offers. Without the creative ability to annex the power of InfoTech, many would be lost in the scheme of things.

Don't you need electricity to harness this "power of infotech" ? Abi you can run computers on lantern ni?

Aigbofa:


Don't you need electricity to harness this "power of infotech" ? Abi you can run computers on lantern ni?

He (the author) is trying to be specific here. Don't always criticize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_DheZbvXQ8

[size=15pt]Growing Nigeria I.T Industry[/size]