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Preparing Nigeria for Knowledge-Based Economy(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Most advanced economies have undergone significant structural changes in recent years. One of the key characteristics of the changes is the growing importance of knowledge in all sectors of economic activities. As such, the 25th edition of the Nigeria Computer Society yearly congress held in Enugu, at the weekend challenged the country on the need to implement policies that could aid it bridge the knowledge economy gap. ADEYEMI ADEPETUN, who attended, reports... THE linking of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to knowledge, and the accompanying competitive advantage, has introduced new challenges into the discipline of information systems. Many organizations began to be more involved either in delivering knowledge-based products or in actual selling knowledge directly. This has seriously affected and is still affecting the process of knowledge economy worldwide, particularly in developing countries, like Nigeria. ICT plays a very important role in today's knowledge-based economy. Knowledge is the most important economic input in production in modern economy. Knowledge-based economy or knowledge economy as it is widely known is an economy that makes effective use of knowledge for economic and social development. The development of knowledge economy based and the value added as created by qualified knowledge is directly related to a national scale economic growth and sustainable productivity. Indeed, the transformation of Nigerian economy involves internal and external relationships through ICT optimising products and services delivery, which is an important element in the development of Nigeria as a nation. A shift in world economy towards knowledge based products and services have become indispensible in the recent past. Globalization and developments in ICT has changed the business scenario and the entire landscape. According to computer professionals under the aegis of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) at the 25th edition of their yearly conference held at the Nike Lake Resort, Enugu with the theme: "Building a Knowledge-Based Economy in Nigeria: The Role of Information Technology", for knowledge-based economy to be attained in the country, an area that must be addressed is security. To them, for ICT based services, the convenience associated with knowledge-based economy increases the need for security, which includes confidentiality, integrity, and availability. A key concern, which they stressed, was that of privacy, adding that one cannot expect to do business on the net without addressing the privacy concerns of the customers. Welcoming the about 1000 participants from across the country, to the three-day event, which also saw the induction of new members, the president of NCS, Prof. David Adewumi said government can facilitate in adjusting to the knowledge-based economy by providing a stable macro policies for human capital development. Adewumi, who stressed the need to have a conducive and secure environment that can lure investors, noted that the use of computers in education and link between scholars and researchers in research and development of different universities and industrial organizations must be improved. According to him, the digital divide between those who have Internet access and those without it be reduced by facilitating ICT development, adding that the liberalization of the telecommunications industry and promotion of e-business and egovernment with lowering telecommunication costs will help in promoting national and international trade. Like Adewumi, the immediate past president of NCS, Sir, Demola Aladekomo said that security is vital to the success of digital or knowledge economy. "We cannot claim to be clamoring for a digital economy when security is porous. Therefore it is critical for Nigeria as a nation to put appropriate security measures to secure the country's sovereignty", Demola said. According to him, to attain knowledge-based economy, IT iliteracy and infrastructural challenges must be resolved. In his contribution, immediate past president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Chris Uwaje, attaining or achieving a digital economy rides on secure environment, "therefore, it is critical we tackle insecurity by all means possible including using ICT tools." Interestingly, efforts by the country to become a digital economy has started yielding the expected results as the latest United Nations e-government development ranking showed an upward improvement by 21 points. Nigeria rose to 141 out of 193 countries rated in the UN Global e-government Development Index for 2014. Similarly, the country was also ranked 97 in the e-Participation index, an improvement of 22 points up from 75 in 2012. It would be recalled that Nigeria was ranked 162 in 2012. The upward movement of Nigeria in the 2014 ranking can be said to be a welcome development, an indication that shows that progress is being made in the efforts of the Nigerian Government through the Ministry of Communication Technology to enable it promote e-governance in Nigeria. Indeed, the ministry has embarked on initiatives to deploy ICT to drive transparency and efficiency in governance and public service delivery and enable internal efficiency in government, the ministry is also promoting ICT in government-by facilitating e-government, which enhances transparency, efficiency, productivity and citizen engagement. To sustain this development, Accenture Nigeria, while acknowledging the existence of many recognized value levers for driving national development, called for improve technology education. In a paper titled, "Application of Knowledge Technologies & Engineering in National Development", Country Managing Director, Accenture Nigeria, Niyi Yusuf noted that literacy level of a population has direct impact on national development. Thus, he said the nagging challenges of low literacy rate at 51 per cent; poor education funding; dearth of teachers; obsolete educational content; little/no access to schools and educational resources in rural areas; growing young population with significant numbers not learning and increasing cost of education, must be tackled as soon as possible using technology. According to Yusuf, who was represented by Adebayo Ibrahim, also of Accenture, the application of knowledge technologies must be, accessible, cost effective, relevant, easy to use and relevant. On Accessibility, Yusuf posited "Knowledge resources need to be accessible to all who need them. This includes the historically under-served demography especially within the rural areas "Cost Effective: A key feature impacting accessibility is cost, and in order to ensure that the target users are able to access the resources, it must also be low cost in order to be affordable "Easy to Use: Solutions must be easy to use in order to facilitate adoption. The scenario where valuable resources are not utilized due to complexity is a common one, and must be avoided "Relevant: Knowledge resources must be relevant both within the local and national contexts. Focus should be placed on skills that will benefit the individual, the community, and ultimately the nation". He added that Nigeria can leverage on three global trends that are reducing the historical challenges of lack of power and cost of technology required for practical implementation. They are, cost of devices, device power consumption and solar power cost per watt. "These trends will allow leapfrogging by utilizing e-content, low cost devices, cloud computing, and renewable energy sources," he said. With all these in mind, Nigeria would also need to protect its numerous data, the conference noted. The conference described data as useful information necessary for the growth of organisations. "Data has become the currency of a knowledge-based economy, driving innovation and boosting businesses at various levels, and must be protected at all cost", it stressed. The conference also looked at security issues in a knowledge-based economy and strongly advised individuals and organisations to always protect their data. Manager, Cyber Risk Services Unit of Deloitte Nigeria, Funmilola Odumuboni, in her presentation in one of the sessions, said although data drives knowledge-economy, but there are security issues around data that must be addressed. According to her, "Nigeria is fast moving to knowledge based economy and there is need to address the security issues around such activities that counts as knowledge economy." She listed some of the security issues to include software piracy, identity theft, industrial espionage, and platform interoperability, among others. To address the security issues, Odumuboni suggested effective intellectual management system; development of a robust security strategy; formulating piracy laws and cyber security laws, as well as creating awareness that must be led by government through seminars and workshops. She was worried that data hacking was on the increase globally, but advised that Nigerians must come up to protect data in order to drive knowledge- based economy. Copyright The Guardian. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |