Expert berates NOTAP over poor patronage of local software
An Information Technology (IT) expert, service manager and entrepreneur, Mr. Abiodun Atobatele and has berated the National Office for Technology and Promotion (NOTAP) for the poor patronage of local manufactured software.
Atobatele lamented that NOTAP, which is the regulatory agency to protect software development and acquisition in Nigeria has gone to sleep.
Atobatele, a Harvard Business School alumnus and the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of ATB Techsoft Solution, an indigenous operator stated this in an interview with a National Newspaper recently, adding that the major problem confronting software development companies in Nigeria like any other sector of the economy, is local content and patronage.
He stated that there is a need for government to protect the local software industry, adding that “We have local content law or policy, but in practice, these laws are observed in breaches and treated with impunity.
We have NOTAP, which is the regulatory agency to protect software development and acquisition in Nigeria. The question is whether that organisation that is running on taxpayers’ money is carrying out its mandate,” he queried in the Interview.
He affirmed no company in Nigeria, big or small, should buy any software or import them into Nigeria without NOTAP certification, as the Agency is in a position to issue a certificate before any company can get forex from banks to buy software abroad.
“NOTAP is expected to have a database of all software companies in Nigeria and their products, and at the same time, have a database of all the software that companies use in Nigeria which they buy offshore,” he added.
He opined that when companies come to seek NOTAP approval to buy software from abroad, NOTAP should first look into its database to look at Nigerian companies that have such software or can develop it and refer the buyer to the local software company, stressing that it is when there is no local company that can meet that need that NOTAP should allow any company to buy offshore.
He revealed that from official available record, over $1billion is spent yearly to import foreign software into Nigeria and therefore advised NOTAP to be organising quarterly local software companies fair, where software companies can display and demonstrate what they have; and in order to help government to know the capacity of local companies.
He said “We are inventing and coming with innovation, but we don’t have good patronage for our efforts and the big businesses send billions abroad to India, U.S., and Europe, to buy software we can make in Nigeria.”
NOTAP has a technology transfer guideline, which highlights that Multinational Companies operating in Nigeria should empower their local support partners by giving them 40 percent of the Annual Technical Support (ATS) fee.
Its mandates also include evaluation/registration of technology transfer agreements; promotion of intellectual property; technology advisory and support services.
