Abuja Technology Village
AT the media briefing which followed the meeting of the Federal Executive Council on November 17, 2004, government made known its decision to set up a technology village. The technology village is intended to be a "city of knowledge which would have the highest quality infrastructure attracting the best brains in information and bio-technology, pharmaceutical and information technology research". It will occupy 650 acres along the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Road in the Federal Capital Territory.
As proposed the project will rely on collaboration by the public and private sectors. The Federal Government would contribute N5 billion seed money in the form of infrastructure. The private sector would bear the balance of the overall cost estimated at N55.2 billion. It is envisaged that the first phase of the technology village will be commissioned within the remaining 30 months of this administration. Though the extent and nature of the stated first phase are unclear, they are expected to provide 40,000 jobs many of them in the area of information technology.
Viewed against the usual and unhurried pace of government business especially where it concerns matters that are totally new, the rather short time frame set for this undertaking casts it as a crisis project. Government has pinned the urgency on the realisation that "one of the fastest growing businesses today is out-sourcing information technology (IT) services. India got $12.5 billion in 2003 from export of software only, more than what we made from oil. Ten years ago, they were making zero in that area... It is expected that by the year 2015, 430,000 IT jobs would leave America for developing countries because of very high wages in the US. We believe that Nigeria, as one of the low-cost countries with brilliant people and Nigerians in diaspora that have already made major advances in the area of IT, can take some of the business".
Without examining the detailed business plan, the above excerpts excite instant curiosity about the likelihood of the project�s success. The proposed Abuja technology village is to be sited on a tract of virgin land equivalent in size to a space 2.55 kilometres square. That conjures up the image of some sort of games village, derivable from the chosen location? What infrastructure would government build with N5 billion in seed money?
Has the anticipated private sector's counterpart N50 billion funding towards providing "the highest quality infrastructure" been set aside by identified Nigerians in diaspora, local entrepreneurs or foreign investors? Obviously Nigerians and particularly those in diaspora who have excelled and made advances in the area of information technology flowered in the subsisting and enabling environment abroad. Can the proposed facility implants match the state-of-the-art facilities overseas?
Granted that Nigeria is a low-cost country; but will "the best brains" to be attracted to the technology village be paid local wage rates or comparable and dollarised equivalents of their foreign earnings or will they depend exclusively on fees accruable to out-sourced services rendered? Where will the expected many of the 40,000 IT area workers be recruited from in Nigeria or even be accommodated in Abuja? As yet unasked questions and lurking problems are legion. It does not require a clairvoyant to see that the Abuja technology village will become another white elephant.
Yet, the idea of a technology village is desirable. For even without any prospect of exporting computer software which forms the basis of the ill-thought-out Abuja technology village, Nigeria cannot but reckon with the computer. Various economic activities are now heavily dependent on computers, which have become really versatile as a result of rapid improvements in information technology and computer software. It has been estimated that in terms of revenue the computer industry encompassing manufacture, development, sales and servicing of computer hardware and software publishing constituted the second largest industry worldwide next to agriculture in the 1990s.
As a matter of fact, the potential held forth by the computer are not lost on Nigeria because already computer and computer related industries as well as peripheral activities have assumed rising and significant profile in the economy. Thus any government decision on a suitable technology village should be broad enough to take due account of such important developments.
The hollowness of the urgency which government has placed on the narrowly focused Abuja technology village reverberates from the refusal by the Federal Executive Council since 2001, despite successive budget surpluses, to accede to the demand of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology for a sum of just N20.7 million for the purpose of carrying out a feasibility study on an appropriate technology village. We do not know the scope of the long spurned feasibility study, but we think that it should be revisited with the objective of developing a holistic policy on the computer industry.
For example, a number of institutions today are designated centres of excellence for specific areas of study. There exist some credible research institutions, too. Additionally, some private establishments are seriously engaged in specific aspects of the computer industry. To these groups should be directed a steady flow of public cum private research and development grants and/or seed money. Such funds should be tied to acquisition of up-to-date and specialised computer facilities, executing specific projects or proposals delivering verifiable services and ensuring some concrete computer development processes. Project developers should be free to originate proposals as appropriate to be funded. Such challenges help hone skills and promote further advancement.
It will appear then that instead of a single location, a feasible option may be found in a nationwide technology village. Thanks to the computer, we already live in a global village. Thus specialised units situated in different parts of the country may work in coordination to achieve well-articulated national objectives regarding information technology and the computer industry. Direct government involvement will be uncalled-for as it breeds inefficiency and waste.
It is needless to state that computer technology witnesses very rapid improvements. Meanwhile, computer education is not well developed here yet. Government should therefore encourage computer education in the entire school system. Widespread computer literacy and attendant increased computer usage will in a relatively short time, but sadly not within the lifetime of this administration, lead to the emergence of computer experts who may be counter upon to produce outstanding results and achievements in the areas of information technology and computer development.
