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Presidents Message WELCOME SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF INSTITUTE OF SOFTWARE PRACTITIONERS OF NIGERIA (ISPON),MR. CHRIS UWAJE(FNCS) ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURAL PRESIDENT'S DINNER AT FEDERAL PALACE HOTEL, LAGOS (DECEMBER 14,2009) NIGERIAN DEVELOPED SOFTWARE : OUR LAST HOPE? It gives me a great pleasure to welcome you all – and indeed a special honour to welcome our distinguished guests, guest of honour and in particular, our Keynote Speaker and captains of the IT profession and industry. ISPON is happy to host you here today, at this critical moment of history in our national development. If I make the following statements therefore, it is because ISPON is deeply involved, concerned, committed and constructively dedicated to ensuring that “Software” – perhaps our last development hope this century, does not slip us by. We all have a duty to develop and sustain the Nigerian Software identity as a cultural heritage. “There are certain moments in life, when you can predict and indeed, see the future with such clarity – that it nearly takes your breath away!” ISPON clearly sees that positive future in “Nigerian Developed Software” (NDS). Today, Software Technology can simply be defined as the cement that holds the world together and no nation will succeed without earning and mastering its development, application and service dynamics. Thanks to the advances in Information Technology. One can therefore rightly state that Software has become – not only the vehicle – but the centre of gravity of humanity’s quest for knowledge development and information society. The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) was established in 1998 to fulfil the following objectives - amongst others: To accelerate the creation of an enabling environment for the sustainable growth of the Nigerian Software Industry. To produce a large pool of software knowledge innovators and developers, capable of producing software that meet and surpass international standards, applying best practices and contributing to the advancement of global software engineering research. ISPON’s advocacy led to the establishment an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Software and the birth of the Nigeria Software Development Initiative (NSDI). We were part of the team who re-engineered Nigeria Software Exhibition (NISE). ISPON was also instrumental to the establishment of ICT Departments in the Federal Ministries. For all the above achievements, I wish to recognize the untiring efforts of my immediate past President – Engineer Simeon Chijioke Agu – who initiated the popular ‘Ten-Point Agenda for the Nigerian Software Industry’ – and laid a strong foundation for the take-off of Software Nigeria.. My appreciation also goes to all members of the immediate past National Executive Council and to Dr. Chris Nwannenna – a founding member and Trustee of ISPON. The mission of the current National Executive Council - amongst others, include: re-defining the organizational and operation structure of ISPON to the benefit of is members. Ensuring that Government will establish a national committee to craft a National Software Policy for Nigeria. Encourage Government and the Investment Community to invest in the establishment of Software Development Park. ISPON also intends to establish a “Software Bazaar” for demonstrating the capabilities, potentials and values of Indigenous Software Products and services. I urge you to support and contribute to the actualization of all the above initiatives.
What defines national economic success, community values, progress, development, quality education, justice, wealth, prosperity etc. Has Nigeria kept pace with a rapidly changing world in today's global information-centric and knowledge-based economy? Are there good models for Domain reform that we can follow? Indeed, are we capable of originating knowledge architecture as workable platform to suite our development purposes? Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, ISPON views today’s gathering as a meaningful attempt to rub minds and re-examine key Software issues that engage and challenge our nation at various levels of her development. As we are aware, there is a Paradigm shift in global development lifecycle, which was principally originated, and currently sustained by Software knowledge engineering. The Industrial development era is gone and we totally lost out as a nation – making us mentally and economically dependent on global forces. Many authors of reliable research works have recognised the complex role that software plays in national economic development strategies, pointing out that the domestic application and use of software products and services must be considered strategic imperatives in parallel with the development of the nation. What makes ISPON and the global software community particularly interesting, is the diverse characteristics of its global network requirement and effectiveness. This factor has continued to fuel the adventure of globalization and its inherent opportunities.
ISPON is concerned that, if our software thinking poverty
is not engaged with conscious political will and strategies
to reverse its current direction, the nation may become a
classical example of the “Digital Colony” of the 21 Century! Finally while thanking you for your past support I wish to further solicit for your world-class knowledge, ideas, skills and support in making the ISPON dream a huge success. Thank you and God bless you Featured Projects  Members |
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