With the countless opportunities and positive impact that Information Communication Technology (ICT) offers, it is necessary that conscious and deliberate efforts are made by policy makers, government and institution to continually build capacity in ICT to promote technological advancement in Nigeria.

The various sectors of any economy such as commerce, healthcare, banking, education, governance, entertainment, hospitality and other areas can hardly exist in isolation without ICT. In fact, its adoption to these fields will bring further improve their operations.

That is why, Accenture, a leading global professional services company, which provides broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations, has been at forefront of inspiring creativity and encouraging Nigerian youths towards ICT creativity and advancement.

In its viewpoint, the mirage of socio-economic and political challenges facing the nation can be addressed using ICT.

This belief is what led the Accenture team in 2008 to forge an alliance with the Nigerian Computer Science Society (NCS) Ogun State Chapter; a partnership that has seen the mentoring and knowledge exchange between then and the students for the past 8years; and led to the partnership with the National Conference of National Association of Computer Science Students’ (NACOSS).

At the recently concluded 17th National Conference of National Association of Computer Science Students’ (NACOSS) held at the Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, the Country Manager, Accenture Nigeria, Mr. Niyi Yusuf, reiterated the need of the Nigerian government to give priority the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

In his paper entitled: `The Role of the Youths in Sustainable Growth of the National Development through Information Technology’ he stressed the need for synergy between government and corporate bodies in building capacity and providing opportunity for the youth in ICT.

He added that the sector has the potential to create wealth and jobs as well as tackle security challenges plaguing Nigeria.

According to Yusuf, “a lot of challenges being faced in Nigeria today have been faced by most advanced countries,” saying, “these problems were addressed using IT.”

He said such problems as poor economic outlook; inequality, poverty, rapid urban expansion, insecurity, corruption and others were issues that little software could tackle.

Yusuf believes that Nigerians have the potentials to solve its problems using ICT.

He noted that what the country requires is proper synergy between government and other bodies.

“Government should move beyond the design of dormant governments’ web sites and go into digital e-governance through partnership, research with the right bodies. Through digital e-governance, government can interface with the public and provide services that somehow look very difficult’’, he said.

He noted that e-governance drives accountability, transparency, equitability, responsive, consensus orientated, rule of law, and participatory which according to him are major characteristics of good governance.

Yusuf who chronicled the notable inventions that have impacted positively on the world added, “a lot of these inventions were made by young people using technology. We are convinced that if young people outside Nigeria could create jobs and wealth using ICT, Nigerian youths if supported could equally make positive marks,” he said.

Yusuf said because of this believe, Accenture Nigeria supported the Tony Elumelu Foundation and other groups in building the capacity of youths in ICT, noting that Nigeria has bright future if the youths are fully exposed to ICT.

Through its partnerships with the National Association of Computer Science Students (NACOSS) and the Nigerian Computer Science Society (NCS), Accenture has elevated the pursuit of attaining ICT education to new heights with its sponsorship of the annual conference of the association which has translated to a significant improvement in the quality of attendance and the papers presented for capacity building with an impressive increase in student participation.

From records, about 2,700 students have participated in series of NACOSS activities held in various institutions like Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Federal University of Technology, (FUT) Minna, Covenant University and Bells University, Federal College of Education Osiele, Ogun State, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State among other held across Nigeria.

Accenture has shown a needs-based approach to its support by rewarding the conscientiousness of the most outstanding students in each ICT unit of the institutions with laptops, tablets and other IT gadgets/devices to make them work more efficiently, while some participants have enjoyed of the investment of time and knowledge via the mentorship scheme to improve on their software development skills and ability to translate them into applications that can be sold for value.

Among the inventions created by the students so far include: ‘My Supervisor & I,’ a project management system that allows student and supervisor relationship. It allows proper documentation of their final year projects.

Through it, the project coordinator assigns registered students to supervisors. It creates a platform for supervisors to relate with students, upload their project work and make corrections. 

It also has a chat platform that allows the supervisor to chat with the student. It was made from HTML file, CSS3 for client site and server side PHP and Ajax.

‘BizExpert,’ is an all-in-one business manager for local business organization. It aims to make business environment go paperless and enhance workforce productivity. It helps keep record of daily transactions, stock level, debts, and credit. It helps with profit and loss analysis, product analysis, salesperson log, sending of balance sheet through email, restock SMS alert.

It is indigenous, easy to set up and use as compared to internationally developed business tools.

Another invention is ‘Near Me,’ a mobile application that makes life easier and more comfortable by giving an edge in finding the closest and necessary places around with detailed information for the user.

It acts as a great navigation tool by which you can find your way in a city or location. Its interface has attractive icons with speed-dial locations such as ATMs, banks, hospitals, hotels, university, police, gas stations, airport, zoo, cinema, bar, shopping mall etc. and a search bar where users can search any location.

Each location is attached with full details including address, images, ratings, phone no, map direction, user review and distance, estimated time. The user can add any location to his favorite list. Google voice is available to support as well.   

‘Slangz’ aims to promote the use of pidgin language (Wazobia) a common informal way of communicating amongst Nigerians. This software is a mobile app.

It is a dictionary for words in the Wazobia language and for referencing purposes. 

The user can add a new word or slang as it is commonly called and also improve on the meaning of existing words. 

‘Traffic Offence’ is a web and mobile database program that makes it possible for traffic officers to record traffic offences committed by road users with the help of the mobile app. It also helps the road users to register their vehicle and driver’s license online.

Traffic Offence also gives the road users information of amount payable for every traffic offence and access to the offence sheet of the FRSC.

The software also has an android app that will only be used by the traffic officers to check vehicle and drivers’ information from any part of the country and also record offense, clear offences after payment have been made by the offender.

‘Security Surveillance Software’ is a camera placed somewhere which detects sound and movement. If movement or sound occurs it raises an alarm.

This can be used in the bank vaults, premises or places with restricted movement.  

In the field of Agriculture, ‘Agrosol,’ is a platform that could be put to use. It is designed to bring Nigerian farmers together and provide tips on how manage their farms, lessons on seasons of planting and how, latest news, machinery training with video simulation, manages database for farmers (as long they register).

www.onecrier.com is an information portal, which registers online and chooses user’s area of interest. It automatically sends messages when there is any new information about user’s area of interest.

As its further contribution to the development of ICT, Accenture is ready to explore the possibilities for mass deployment of these creations.

That is why Accenture would be partnering with a third party to help in mentoring the students and how they can improve on the software and make them marketable through putting them in a technology hub programme. 

It is part of Accenture’s plan to grow this initiative by partnering with NACOSS to host their Annual Software Competition in order to promote this initiative by taking over the sponsorship.

According to the company, it would help reshape the competition and ensure that there is a continuation in the process of developing the best software.

Apart from rewarding the best students with prizes, Accenture also intends to help them with further development of their initiatives.

This partnership between Accenture and NACOSS has no doubt motivated Nigerian students. 

In the response Onwugbolu Tochukwu, the out-going president of NACOSS, noted that students have been more motivated and willing to put in more effort to develop software and participate in the programme.

The long term vision for Accenture’s is to grow the skills acquisition and knowledge base of the participating students and use it as an end to end pipeline of breakthrough ideas that will be taken to the world market not just local; putting Nigeria on the global map of ICT development.

This journey is intended to shape meaningful ideas that will lead to the recognition of Nigeria as a valuable technology hub with incubation programmes that nurture a wide spectrum of applications created by the students – a first step toward a digital future.