Tech expert envisions Nigerians to export ideas, import same
Now that the world is noticing the great effort of tech startups in the country, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert and President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) Mr. Sunday Folayan has expressed concerns over the recent visit of the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg to Nigeria, stressing that Nigeria may just be on the way to exporting ideas and importing it back in the near future.
Folayan expressed the concern on his recent Facebook timeline on what he titled ‘Matters Arising from the Facebook Boy’s visit.’
The visit according to him, may just be another avenue of coming for Tech Start-ups in Nigeria with great ideas that has remained untapped by successive governments, aside from from the tax, even with the dead mantra of seeking other sources of revenue beyond oil.
“Soon, we will import Ideas, and I hope the government will not convince us that we need to import a Minister of ICT,” he noted.
Folayan gave a chronicle of how foreigners came into Nigeria and made the country to import resources that the country has in abundance, adding that they came for our palm nuts, we now import palm oil, but we still have palm nuts in abundance; they came for our Cocoa, we now import Chocolate with Cocoa still in abundance; they came for our crude oil and we still import petroleum, with huge subsidy (now shifted to LNG?) while the crude rots in our wells and government destroys the micro-refineries in the creeks; then they came for our footballers, European Soccer changed pace, we now celebrate Bronze after Gold, and we still import soccer coaches; They came for our Doctors and Nurses, Arabian healthcare became a marvel, nurtured by UCH trained Doctors and we can no longer boast of any center of medical excellence; We have exported people so much, that Diaspora remittances can fund all of Nigeria’s Forex needs, but with rent seekers in financial places, those gains go into private pockets and legitimate needs are not met.
You can smell the coffee. They are coming for our Tech Start-ups and great ideas that has remained untapped by our successive Governments (apart from the Tax), even with the dead mantra of seeking other sources of revenue beyond oil; … Soon we will import ideas, and I hope the Government will not convince us that we need to import a Minister of ICT!
It will be recalled that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, world’s biggest social networking site was recently in Nigeria on his first ever visit to sub-Saharan Africa.
His first point of call is the Yaba technology hub in Lagos, where he met with developers and partner.
“This is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. I’ll be meeting with developers and entrepreneurs, and learning about the startup ecosystem in Nigeria. The energy here is amazing and I’m excited to learn as much as I can.
“The first place I got to visit was the Co-creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB) in Yaba. I got to talk to kids at a summer coding camp and entrepreneurs who come to CcHub to build and launch their apps. I’m looking forward to meeting more people in Nigeria,” said Mark Zuckerberg on his personal Facebook timeline.
