FG told to set-up national software testing centre

FG told to set-up national software testing centre
Ben Uzor Jr
Cleopas Anganye, director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency has advised the Federal Government to establish a national software testing centre that would certify all locally developed software in the country to ensure that they conform strictly to international standards. This, he further pointed out would strategically position the nation’s software industry for global competitiveness as the industry has indisputably become an essential resource for intellectual capital, investment opportunities and value creation in any given economy. Angaye made these disclosures, Friday in Lagos while briefing newsmen on his facility tour of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), an indigenous Information Technology company. The NITDA DG also harped on the importance of setting up this software testing centre, stating that the quality of software and its conformations to requirements and standards underlines its effectiveness and competitiveness in the international markets. In explaining what functions the software testing centre would perform, he noted that it test software product’s user-friendliness, stability, security and its adherence to functional and performance requirements. “We need to set-up a world-class software testing centre in Nigeria. We need to actually get more people to use our software to convince themselves that Nigerian software solutions can meet international requirements. This would make our products much more competitive in the market. Most of the software’s we produce are very good. If I am outside the country and I write a software and send, you may not even know it was written by a Nigerian. If I have a company here and write people may not even patronize it. “Some of our companies even go outside the country to write software, brand it with foreign companies and bring them in, which is sad. This is because software testing in the country is not yet authenticated. We have been working on that authentication of made in Nigeria software. When it is authenticated internationally, it is as good as writing software in the United States. This is what India did”, he posited. Still on what the agency is doing to aid software development in the country, Angaye disclosed that NITDA is considering the development of a content policy that would make it mandatory for firms operating in the critical sectors of the economy (Oil and Gas, Banking and Finance, Telecommunications) to power certain vital processes with locally developed software solutions. According to him, this would compel these companies to invest in the development and further improvement of those solutions to meet international standards. However, software practitioners in the country has blamed the industry’s snail speed development majorly on government’s low level of participation in the area of ineffective policy formulation and providing infrastructures to aid software development. Also, they say that government’s refusal to increase tariffs on imported software to discourage import has also helped to repress the industry’s growth and development.