Stakeholders in the Communication and Information industries have charged the Federal Government to integrate technology into every aspect of education to maximize the benefits of ICT-enabled learning system.
This charge was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the just concluded 1st International Conference on ICT for National Development and its Sustainability organised by the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin, to mark its 10th Anniversary.
Themed “ICT for National Development and its Sustainability (ICT4NDS 2018)”, the two-day Conference, which attracted more than 80 academic papers, also encouraged the Federal Government to key into ICT-driven entrepreneurship to reduce the army of unemployed youths in the country.
According to the communiqué, signed by Dr. R. G. Jimoh, “consideration of the physically-challenged citizens through ICT infrastructures; securing Nigeria voting system through integration of biometric data; encouragement of private-public partnership to develop ICT infrastructures and boost youth employment; encouragement of multinational companies and foreign investors to build IT companies capable of producing exportable IT products must be considered”.
The stakeholders also observed that due to the use of Information and Communication Technologies and its serious environmental problems, Nigeria should come up with policies that will ameliorate the problems, such as lack of full integration of ICT in the implementation of Nigerian national development policies.
Acknowledging that “ICT has important roles in transforming a nation into a knowledge-based economy”, the Conference lamented that “Nigeria has failed to come up with a globally recognized ICT company or product originating from Nigerian indigenous technology because the national economy has not been technologically driven”. It, therefore, said that “for Nigeria to develop, it must develop its infrastructure and info-structure.”.
The stakeholders also suggested that the Federal Government should guide and regulate youths’ use of ICT through counselling and media literacy programmes,
The Conference also called on the government to “provide reliable and affordable infrastructure as well as fiscal incentives, enabling law and scheme of service for IT professionals that will empower them to produce indigenous software”, saying that “there is a need to develop the IT sector through the creation of a special of a special fund to assist start-up businesses as well as to grow existing developers”.
Highlights of the conference included illuminating lectures and awards to distinguished personalities who have made impacts in the ICT industry.
Culled From: http://www.unilorin.edu.ng/index.php/fnews/6544-conference-tasks-fg-on-ict-enabled-learning-system
