Software developers have encouraged organizations in the country to place more emphasis on competence of locally made software rather than the craze for foreign certification of companies that develop solutions.
They said that software is the backbone for 21st century national development and wealth creation, urging Nigerian companies to change their perceptions about indigenous software.
Yele Okeremi, managing director, Precise Financial Systems, spoke of the importance of certification especially for quality assurance purposes and urged Nigeria to provide some form of incentive for local companies to attain global competiveness.
“I will however like to state that just like the possession of a University certificate does not guarantee competence in the field, so does the possession of myriad of certifications by an organization not guarantee its competence and capacity.” He added
Okeremi further said that “When I hear lazy and sometimes incompetent Chief Information Officers giving excuses of the non-possession of certifications as a means of disqualifying Nigerian software houses from projects, I shudder because then it confirms their laziness and incompetence because great companies emerge because the environment gives them opportunities to prove their mettle even when the companies are still at start-up stage”
James Agada, managing director, ExpertEdge Software- the software arm of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) , while agreeing on the need to emphasis on competence, explained that certification is not meant for software products but for the company that develops the software, stating that it is difficult to certify software.
“What software requires is quality-can it do the work, and user interface”.
He cited instances of Microsoft word, mobile phone software among others that are not certified but are working for its purpose.
Agada added that software requires general recommendation such Cobit for control objective, he noted that certification issue apply in an environment where companies are doing contract software development such as in India to proof that they can do it.
Chris Uwaje, chairman, Mobile Software Solutions, stated that in spite of all known certification processes, the world today is running on a very porous software framework – as evidenced by the high rise of Cybercrime and Cybersecurity – especially in the financial business cycle
“Main reason is that the world is yet to agree on a global standard/model for software maturity. The world need to get together and work-out a convergence of models within all the software models and ensure that issues of market monopoly is eliminated,” he said.