FG To Train 50,000 Licensed Experts In Software Development

The Federal Government has said it would engage the Nigeria Software Testing Qualification Board for the provision of software testing services in Nigeria.

A statement on Thursday by Hadizar Umar, Spokesperson, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), quoted Prof. Isa Pantami, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy as saying the aim was to meet the increasing integration of the software ecosystem.

The minister revealed this at a workshop organized by the board, with the theme: Role of Software Testing in Nigeria’s Digital Economy in Abuja.

Pantami said that with such deployment, software development would have been democratised in the country.

A democratised software is a style of software development where business domain experts actively take part in the development process.

It is usually aided by a low-code tool or platform that automates large sections of code and reduces the amount of technical expertise required.

The Minister, represented by the Director-General, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, said by seeking cohesive cooperation of the board, the developer of software would need a certified tester to ensure It met the standard quality assurance;

According to Pantami, the software has to meet the assurance of all the basic bug-free, and vulnerability assessments before the software would be unveiled.

‘’This will eliminate having the market loaded with software with a lot of vulnerabilities.

“We are working on building the capacity of one million developers in the next 18 months and we know we cannot do it alone that is why we need the board to help us achieve it.

“We are already working with some multinationals to help us on this and we also need the indigenous people to key into this initiative,’’ he said.

Pantami said that to achieve the ambitious target of 95 per cent digital literacy, there was the need to build the literacy of citizens in order for them to understand and consume digital services.

According to him, it can only be achieved if we can build error-free software locally so as to secure the confidence of our consumers.

The President of the board, Boye Dare said the board would work assiduously to make Nigeria a software testing hub in Africa.