The over 1,000 participants at the 2016 Nigeria DigitalSENSE
Forum series recently ended in Lagos, with Nigerian youths charged to turn
challenges in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector into
opportunities, reports ITRealms.
A copy of the communique made available to ITRealms by the
convener and Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, Mrs.
Nkemdilim Nweke, noted that there are opportunities within every challenge.
She said, participants, made up of stakeholders, Internet
service providers, electronic payment providers, cyber security professionals,
students, youths and Internet Protocol gurus, pointed out that Nigeria has rich
cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge; hence tourism apps could come up to
document these heritages for use by visitors coming to Nigeria.
The communique also stated that development of social media
in Nigerian languages is another opportunity, same with the gaming industry.
“There is also the opportunity to deepen citizen
participation in governmental process and enhance public service delivery.
“Nigeria should embrace the great potentials in her human
and natural resources and leverage on it to create services and products for Internet
Protocol version Six (IPv6) compliance to address our local challenges,” part
of the communique read.
On the way forward, participants agreed that there is need
for everyone to get connected to the internet.
“There is need for network and content operators to make
their networks and websites available over both IPv4 and IPv6 for the
foreseeable future so that everyone can access the Internet whether they are using
an IPv4 or an IPv6 address,” the communique stated, stressing that the internet
is a public resource and people should be careful about what they post to avoid
assault.
Participants also called for a stronger cyber laws to be
enacted and implemented to prevent and curtail cybercrimes, pointing out that there
is a great need to develop apps as well as capacity to help ensure cyber
safety.
“Government at all levels should encourage e-governance as
this will help in tracking government activities through the social media; it
will also give people access to participate in governance thereby encouraging
transparency and efficiency,” part of the communique read.
Emphasising, those young graduates should realize they are
the architects of their own future and as such, they should learn early enough
to take their destinies into their own hands as it concerns ICT and its usage.
The
two-day forum was in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy
Backbone, MTN Nigeria, SystemSpecs, Phase3 Telecoms, Airtel Nigeria among
others, with endorsement from various industry interest groups.
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