The Co-founder of Tech4Dev, Oladiwura Oladepo has said that Nigerian tech professionals are succeeding in software as opposed to hardware because software development requires little infrastructure.
She notes that while there are a lot of talented Nigerians that could build phones or laptops, Nigeria does not have the infrastructure to enable them to do so.
According to her, Nigerians are able to provide for themselves all that is needed to create software, whereas the same cannot be done when it comes to hardware production. She says this explains why every tech-inclined person in Nigeria is going into software, which is the easy option in the face of the infrastructure challenge in the country.
What the Tech4Dev co-founder is saying
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Nairametrics, Oladepo said: “To create software, all you need is a laptop and internet connectivity. These are things you can easily provide for yourself. It’s not as difficult creating hardware because anybody can sit in his or her room and create something.”
- “But for hardware, it’s a lot different. Think of hardware and think of the manufacturing industry of the country. It takes a lot for you to be able to come up with hardware components because for you to create a laptop, there are many things involved; there are chips, and there are other different components. So, if you are going to build a laptop in Nigeria, it means you are going to source a lot of components that are not available in Nigeria. In other advanced countries, we have different organisations creating different components, like Intel creating the chips, and other companies producing other components, which you can easily buy from them and assemble,” she added.
- “The manufacturing industry is highly capital intensive, and aside from that, you need a massive power supply to be able to embark on hardware manufacturing, which is why you see most of the manufacturing companies in Nigeria like the FMCG collocated in the same area to share power. It takes a lot more to create hardware devices than to create software. And that is why Nigerians are going for the easier option and they are doing fine,” she said.
On what the Nigerian government can do to encourage hardware production in Nigeria, Oladepo the government would have to first solve the power problem as manufacturing requires steady power supply.
- “The government must have a technical programme that will ensure knowledge transfer from the international OEMs that are in the country. Also, there should be a sort of tax exemption or tax holiday for people who want to go into that area. The government can also provide access to capital may be through the Bank of Industry. All this will encourage people who are thinking about it to go into it. Many people have this idea but when they think about these challenges they abandon it. So, if the government is supporting them through all these incentives, they don’t have a reason not to do it,” she said.
Tech4Dev is a non-profit social enterprise that creates access to decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities and platforms for Africans through digital skills. The organisation prepares people for the future of work through technology-based training, which includes coding skills, deep tech skills, employability skills, and basic digital skills.
This is very thoughtful and true. The country is still dealing with power supply which is the life of industrialization not to talk of other infrastructure to facilitate the development and coupling of hardware technology