Training of Software Developers as Catalyst to National Development, Says Okigbo

Worried about skill gap that exists among young graduates of software engineering from tertiary institutions across the country, the President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Pius Okigbo has said the solution to the problem is to organise special training and re-training of software developers.

According to him, such training would boost national development in the area of software.

Okigbo told THISDAY that training is both necessary and crucial for the development of the software industry.

He said: “Without adequate training, the sector is dead. Unfortunately, there is a critical gap in software skills that exists among young school graduates, and the onus lies in the the ability of our tertiary institutions to bridge this gap. In the short term, we may seek collaboration with the private sector to provide the critical infrastructure to deliver software engineering courseware to address the skills gap. The ramping up of the numbers is necessary to achieve critical mass but quality is important. This is why we may seek collaboration with people like Osita Onuma to guide and inspire the young minds to achieve great things.”

Osita is a product of Nigeria and a world class software engineer who broke the 128 year old record at University of London.

Apart from collaborating with great minds like Onuma and others, Okigbo said ISPON is also exploring multi-stakeholder participation with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to deliver aggressive training to help