By 
By Oluwaseun Ajayi
Nigerian political leaders need to identify with those driving local capacities in technology and innovation, Founder of Programos Software Group and Programos Foundation, Amos Emmanuel, has stressed.
There is still no demonstrable willpower amongst the country’s leaders to support local innovators and make indigenous tech entrepreneurs the focal point of government’s policies whether economic or social-political, Emmanuel told IT Edge News in Lagos.
“Nigeria’s political leadership has to identify with its local capacities, it is very important, because we have had an era, perhaps still ongoing, where leadership looks at the outside world for internal solutions. This may have helped them but then obviously, does not really help the economy and Nigeria as a society,” lamented the chief software architect at Programos.
RELATED Programmos Foundation To Create More Innovators As Africa Undergoes Digital Transformation
Emmanuel, a prolific software designer and techpreneur, has successfully led Programos to provision the software backbone to numerous financial institutions in Nigeria including the multiple-award winning capital market software.
He asserted that the main reason why local innovation is key to robustly building any economy is because “an innovator is developing from the experience of the challenge he or she has experienced locally.
“Hence, for an innovator to wake up and think of an idea that can deliver solution, it should be recognized and accepted to the economy, to the society”
Political leaders need to rework their leverage of government to supporting indigenous innovators. There has to be both a vision and a willpower that makes it of necessity to commit to local capacities in innovation, Emmanuel argued.
The Programos Foundation, he founded years back, has been at the forefront of the intervention to create more innovators in Nigeria and Africa through the InnovationBed Africa.
The InnovationBed Africa platform is a digital ecosystem of local and global innovation experts tasked with fostering up–skilling and innovation incubations.
The platform is aiming to reposition Africa away from the bottom of the global value-chain and also to improve the poor competitive ranking of the continent at the World Summit Awards (WSA).
“I think it is very good that our government can actually support and promote this kind of thing. But they see this vision and as politicians, they do nothing so nothing is actually happening on the ground. They forget that local people cannot impact the economy if government does not recognize and invest in the local players and the digital economy.
“It would really go a long way if our government can begin to recognize our local players and not just indulge in propaganda of promoting local capacity.”
He expressed dismay that the government often choose foreign processes to proffer internal solutions and build relationships which are mostly not auditable locally.
His words: “Nigeria has actually invested so much in infrastructure, in terms of broadband investment and all that. But I think the Nigerian government, the political leaders are only looking at how much they are spending; and are not looking at or focusing on the right steps or attitude to make those investments sustainable. So, how do you sustain these investments with ‘un-supported domestic innovators?”
