By Olabisi  Olaleye 

Stakeholders in the software industry have blamed the Federal Government for the collapse of the two IDEA Hubs located in Calabar and Lagos.

The technology hubs, which were established by the Federal Government through the former Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, and designed to incubate software developers, have packed up and left their staff jobless.

While expressing their grievances over the collapse of the technology hubs at the 2017 President’s Dinner of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), which held in Lagos at the weekend, they also accused government of not being proactive in supporting technology initiatives that would boost skills development in the country.

They said government had not been supportive to Information Technology (IT) development in the country, despite several initiatives put forward by IT practitioners that needed government support and funding.

Chairman of Interswitch and Co-chairman of the 2017 ISPON President’s Dinner, Dr. Dotun Sulaimon, blamed the Federal Government for the collapse of IDEA Hubs established in the country to incubate technology startups in the area of software apps development.

According to him, the former Minister had established two IDEA Hubs in Lagos and Calabar, but regretted that the centres collapsed after Johnson left office as Minister in 2015, adding that the Calabar centre packed up shortly after the Minister left office, while the Lagos centre located in Yaba, eventually collapsed last week, as a result of the inability of the centres to pay salaries of their staff as well as vendors like MainOne that had been providing internet connectivity to the centres from inception.

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The IDEA Hubs were established with the intention to train software developers among the youths who will in turn attract seed investors that may be willing to invest in some of the apps considered commercially viable. But few months into the establishment of the centres, the Federal Government withdrew its financial support, leaving them to fend for themselves, leading to their eventual collapse. 

Sulaimon said government must match its words with action and that the idea of not giving full support to technology initiatives would lead to further dearth of technology skills in the country. 

President of ISPON, Mr. Felix Olorogun Emadoye, called on the government to assist in supporting locally developed software  and support local content development.

“We must urgently embrace Software-Nigeria to change the tides and repackage our ways of life. The oil which has turned us to the proverbial prodigal son status of the age old Bible story, is fast depleting and countries that had patronised our oil in the past have turned their back on us. This calls for a change in our attitude and values,” Emadoye said.

He added that with particular reference to software, the Federal Government and Nigerians must be committed to support and patronise indigenous software developed in Nigeria and at the same time, promote local content in the country. 

Other stakeholders who saw the need for support of local content and local skills development in information technology, called for collaborative efforts from both the Federal Government and stakeholders, in order to promote technology skills development in the country.

The immediate past Deputy Governor of Delta State, Prof. Amos Utuama, commended ISPON for its initiatives and called for further collaboration between software practitioners and hardware device manufacturers.