ISPON opens software contest for students

The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) has finalized arrangements to stage the first National Software Competition billed to take place in Calabar, Cross River State, just as it plans Software Development Clubs in universities across the country.

Chairman, publicity committee of ISPON, Mr. Moses Braimah disclosed this on Monday, saying that the contest is perhaps classified as the greatest IT-Quest and knowledge encounter of the year 2011.

He noted that for the past one year, ISPON National Executive Council had been busy laying the ground work for the event.

According to him, following extensive interactions with university students and the leadership of National Association of Computer Students (NACCOS), ISPON has rolled out strategies for the establishment of Software Development Clubs in Nigerian universities.

The clubs, he said, would serve as foundation for building the collaborative communities and connections to the larger stakeholder ecosystem that are pivotal to the emergence of a sustainable knowledge culture and capability for software development.

“At the last count, more than 32 universities have either been registered or applied for registration,” he said.

Braimah explained that the National Software Competition is informed by the strategic imperative to anchor Nigeria’s aspirations for global competitiveness in the knowledge economy on building capacity in knowledge industries such as software.

“With 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population under 30 years of age, ISPON believes that the dream of Vision 20:2020 is realizable only by accelerated efforts to build and unlock the innovation capabilities of our youth, who have propelled Nigeria over just four years to becoming the 10th largest internet user base in the world with 43m users as at August 2011,” he said.

In order to harness the enormous energy of the youth population, he said, ISPON has declared the competition open and released guidelines for the high profile National Software Competition for all tertiary institutions scheduled for October 18, this year.

“The competition will be held at the Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar, with the Cross River State Government as the chief host,” he said.

Braimah further said the competition would attract an audience of over 1,000 youths, supported by endorsements from MTN, UBA, NITDA, VISAFONE, Samsung, CPN, NCS, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and other corporate and institutional top institutions.

Remmy Nweke

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