•Catching them young Photo: Sun News Publishing

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The United States (US) President –elect, Mr Barack Obama, while presenting his economic team to his countrymen and women, emphasised the urgency of a tax cut. For him that was necessary in order to put more money in the pockets of parents, not for candies, ice cream or burgers. Obama said that it was to provide parents the resources to buy computers for their school children.

Elsewhere in Europe and Asia, the computer games are commonplace. These enable the young ones to improve their intellect even as they play and relax.
But the culture here is different. The educational planners talk about computer appreciation, a process of pointing at the computer to the children from a distance and getting parents to pay for it. That has been the practice for a long time. The authorities have not really had a well thought out information communication technology (ICT) policy with the younger generation in mind. The little effort there had been was at best half hearted.

The unseriousness on the matter could be gleaned from what happened in a Federal Government department when money budgeted for a computerization programme was diverted instead to other uses such as the purchase of staff buses. Even in homes most parents would feel more comfortable buying an expensive toy car than computer for their wards at their birthdays.
That is why an average Nigerian youth is lagging behind in terms of ICT. To make up, they teach themselves computing and often the wrong thing that turns them into "yahoo boys" cyber criminals.
Perhaps, it is germaine at this point to restate that the world has gone digital and no nation will have any reason not to cue in. Experts in the sector have been stressing this as a way of reminding officialdom of the desperation the situation has attracted to itself.

At a public lecture recently, the relevance of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the life of emerging economies was, , for the umpteenth time, stressed by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the ICT regulatory agency, Engr Ernest Ndukwe, when he said: "It (ICT) drives the global economy and is also a key to foreign investments."
The industry regulator continued, "a country with the requisite ICT will attract the best of investments". To those who know, this is like stating the obvious even as he added that "ICT in Nigeria is already directed towards the realization of the national objective of Nigeria being one of the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020".

According to him, even with the encouraging commitment of the Federal Government towards the realization of this goal, yet stakeholders are realistic enough to accept that the government might not be able go it alone. Private participation all agree is of immense necessity in the drive towards making Nigeria an IT-propelled nation.
Ndukwe went further to say that it was in realization of this fact that the government was pushing ahead with its policy of liberalising the sector to further encourage private sector participation
For him, the policy has moved the country from its earlier position of public sector exclusivity to, first, four mobile operators and to the unified licensing regime where a single authorization allows operators to deliver multiple services under one licence.

The result of this, Ndukwe pointed out, has been very positive as "Nigeria is now voted in Africa as number one in terms of number of active connected lines, while the commission is rated as one of the foremost telecom regulatory agencies".
This, the NCC boss said, has also resulted in the latest figures of 57 million active subscribers network with a private sector investment in excess of $12billion as against $50milliom in year 2000.
This is for the present with its challenge of caring for the ordinary Nigerians, particularly the youths along.

The attitude of the regulatory agency is that if the tempo was sustained as projections indicate, the relative success so far attained would pale in significance when compared with what is in store for Nigeria, considering her immense potentialities as per human and material resources.
Already, ICT companies with an eye on the future have started adjusting their programmes and budgets in anticipation of what is to come soon, an ICT revolution.
Intel, a United States of America (USA) based micro chip manufacturer, for instance, in a project it aptly code-named: "World Ahead" is pumping in a whopping $100million over a period of 10 years in ICT development among the youth especially school children and their teachers. The policy and the investment are aimed at catching them young.

Not to be left out, Zinox Technologies Ltd, a Nigerian wholly owned ICT company, is splashing a hefty N4billion in its Computerise Nigeria Project, an ambitious project by all standards.
Omatek Computers, the only publicly quoted computer company in Nigeria, has introduced what it called "Omatek e-Xpress Initiative”. In the first instance, the company has secured a facility with Afribank Plc to the tune of N1.5billion which every state of the federation could draw on to make computers affordable to students and their teachers.
All these projects are geared towards one objective, ensuring that Nigeria and Nigerians were not left out in the cold as the digital express cruises on .
In fairness to Nigerians, especially the youth, the craze is catching on. From ground zero, and almost self- thought, they are doing unimaginable things with the wonder machine the world knows as computer.

Today, it sounds amazing, but that is the reality, that children with minimal education can and are, indeed, designing websites in addition to other things.
It is this desire in the youth not to be left out that the computer companies are trying to harness and channel into a positive platform that would make Nigeria a force to be reckoned with in the world of ICT.
And what better area to start from than the education sector.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Omatek, Mrs Florence Seriki, explaining the paradigm shift, said : "These students today will, in no distant future, be the working class on whose shoulders will rest the economy of the nation as engineers, doctors, bankers, journalists, lawyers, accountants and so on. Their familiarity with Omatek will not depart from them then. It is our expectation that the relationship the company has established with them today will be further strengthened. That is our hope. That is why we are making this sacrifice."

Still on this, the Chief Executive Officer of Zinox’s Computerize Nigeria Project, Mrs Vivian Abii, said that it was an aspect of its digital knowledge democracy programme designed to assist Nigerian primary and secondary schools take their rightful place among world class institutions across the globe.
She said that the institutions "have the option of starting with very critical needs of a modern institution until you comprehensively implement all digital infrastructure and contents we are offering in the package".

According to her, "this strategy is intended to alleviate the burden such projects could impose on your schools’ cash flow both in the short and the long run".
The General Manager, Intel Corporation, Mr Devan Naidoo, explaining the basis for his company’s interest in the project, said that, "what we do is look at the programme happening in each country and we look at how we at Intel can align with the programmes and how to progress them faster than they are going at the moment"

Speaking further, he said, "we look up to the kids growing up to be keen users of technology for their benefit, to promote their lives and well being. And in due course, they would walk into a retail store and buy themselves the latest laptops because they understand how they can best use it for their benefits".
Naidoo went on: "World Ahead is an investment for the future. We are investing $100 million for a 10-year period to facilitate the use of ICT in areas that are yet untouched, if you like, by technology. So, we are talking about rural communities that do not have connectivity into the world wide web.

We are talking about usage models that have not been introduced before teacher laptop programmes. 400,000 teachers will have access to laptops. And we are talking about entry level computers. We are talking about the best technology that is available out there. We are providing from different user models that teachers can choose from, depending on what they want to use it for. So, it’s all about enablement and a long sustainable programme that could be beneficial to the individual that adopts it".
Making ICT available anywhere is an expensive project, very capital intensive. In terms of hardware and software, it is a project that is not designed ab initio for the poor. Some computers can cost as much as N160,000. Now, that is clearly beyond the reach of Nigerians especially students and teachers who really need them if the future we are talking about must be secured.

Is there a way of making computers affordable without compromising quality? Mrs Seriki said yes in a chat with Daily Sun. According to her , one way of achieving this: "is to make computers really affordable. And this we have done by designing and producing a computer to serve the perculiar needs of this segment of its clientele-Omatek 81N smartbook." Continuing, she said that the specially designed computer targeted at the education sector would, hopefully, overcome the setback of Nigerian youths in the digital world, "this will help to bridge the digital divide currently existing between the African youths and rest of the world".

The CEO pointed out that her company was aware of the fact that the project would be dead on arrival if a system was not devised through which this segment of the society could afford computers, considering the economic situation in the country.
To this extent, therefore, she said that "we aim at ensuring easy access to computers through a flexible acquisition and payment scheme –the Omatek e-Xpress Initiative."
In the words of Seriki, "e-Xpress offers a convenient and flexible acquisition and payment scheme. Bankers are strongly in support of the initiative, and as such had structured an easy payment scheme which will span between 12 and 24 months. The rentals could also be built inside the school fees for one to two sessions to reduce the financial burden on parents to a minimal level".

Still on the project as it affects Intel, Naidoo said that it was always satisfying to see the results speak for themselves. "If you go to the schools that we have empowered as far as the PCs and notebooks are concerned, that together with the content and connectivity and the education around it, there is a marked difference in the results from those schools that do not have the benefit of having the computers and those that do."

According to him, the significant and positive fallout of the project is that "there is a renewed interest and enthusiasm for learning. And in some cases, we’ve seen kids queuing up in front of a computer lab (cyber café) on a Sunday just to get on to the internet and do research or even download videos. The thing is about understanding the use of technology and empowering yourself".
Justifying his company’s interest in the emerging markets, Naidoo said "the thing is that we can only go to the mature markets to a certain level . There are new technologies that the mature markets could use as a replacement. But if you are to look at growing the number of users, the place to look at is in the emerging markets. The way to do it effectively is to educate the young children on the benefit of technology, so that in time they can be bona fide users of technology and bona fide customers of Intel. But remember that we don’t sell PCs. We don’t sell desktops. We sell microprocessors and we depend on the ecosystem and fellow travellers like HP and others to manufacture PCs that eventually end up in the hands of the end users".

Like their local collaborators, Intel tends to customise the PCs to suit the local environment. This Naidoo said was to cope with the infrastructural and environmental challenges that confront the IT industry in Nigeria. This was even as he quickly added that such challenges were not perculiar to Nigeria as they could also be identifiable in countries like South Africa, Brazil and Mexico.
He explained that, "what we try to do is, for education, for instance , we’ve looked at what is the model of design that would be best suited for the classroom.

With that in mind, we have taken recommendations from teachers, from schools and learners and we say to the actual manufacturers –guys, these are what the requirements are, can you design something that won’t break easily, that is waterproof, something that if it is dropped on a concrete floor will not break, something that if it is exposed to dust will not stop functioning. And they came up with a model that works-the Classmate PC among others. Classmate is ruggedized. There is no hard drive, it uses flash memories, there are no moving parts, there is no need for fan. And in demonstrations that we’ve done, we’ve dropped it on solid concrete floors, picked it up and continued using it. It is designed specifically for the classroom. We take the prototypes to the manufacturers."

Discussing the motive behind the Computerize Nigeria Project, Mrs Abii said that in Zinox, there is a passion to drive ICT to a level that is comparable to what obtains in other places, "and this passion for us especially in the education sector is very keen."
She continued: we believe very much that there has to be a difference in the way our economy is run, the value system we should have. We are making a very serious difference with this project. We tell schools, you have the duty to mould the young minds that have been entrusted to you. It is a duty you cannot delegate to another sector. Make them become world class citizens, one who can fit in any where in the world in terms of having a good education. If we cannot provide the required education that would enable us proudly say that Nigerian youths can compete with the young people in any other part of the world, then we have failed.

For emphasis, she said, "Computerise Nigeria is trying to make a difference here. Having worked in the education sector very closely, we discovered that the biggest challenge that we have in the sector is funding. That is why we have gone out to look for financiers, people who can finance the projects for the schools as well as getting some of our partners."
Continuing, Mrs Abii, who is also the Executive Director of Zinox Technologies Ltd, said that, "the financing of this project is usually the problem in the educational sector. That’s why we have made efforts to partner with some banks to get a line of credit which the schools can actually benefit from".
Explaining further why the project went out of its way to seek financial assistance on behalf of its prospective customers, the CEO said that, "at the initial stage of the Computerise Nigeria project, we had a tough time getting financial institutions that would understand what we are trying to do to computerise Nigeria. It is a passion for us. We could have gone into another business".
Abii maintained that the driving force behind the Computerise Nigeria Project was the determination to ensure that the country was not left behind in the digital race.

"For us in Computerise Nigeria, we are saying that we cannot afford to lag behind", she said, even as she reiterated that the challenges that the company "meets in every sector that we work with, we try to help to overcome and one of them in the educational sector is financing. The individuals who are buying- staff of universities, secondary schools or professional bodies, everybody’s disposal income has a lot of things struggling to get sorted out. And we are saying, ok, your income can be used to finance your ownership of a PC, a laptop or even for your school"
For the schools in particular, what the computer companies are saying is that they don’t have to use all their money to develop their IT infrastructure. For Computerise Nigeria, Mrs Abii said "we can provide the equipment and also give you the leeway to get the funding that can enable you pay over a period of two to three years".

Omatek, in the words of Mrs Seriki, a Chemical Engineer turned computer guru, in streamlining the financing of the project, has clearly defined a modality of getting the schools "write an undertaking to our bankers and ensure that the rentals are collated and remitted directly by the school on behalf of the students and the teachers. The alternative would be for the bank to deal directly with the students or the individuals concerned".

For Seriki, the general idea is two fold. "One , to consolidate our leadership position in the market. Two, and more importantly, it is designed to take care of the future by ensuring that the company did not lose its market".
So, that explains it. The name of the game is business. Why not if it serves the purpose of unlocking the minds of the youths to whom the future belongs, at least, at the idealistic level. If they could not rule at the political level, at least, they would have been equipped to take their destiny in their own hands.