The Nigerian Irish Chamber of Commerce (NICOC) is to host an ICT Summit designed to connect the two countries, which will showcase the capability of Ireland to stakeholders in the Nigerian ICT sector.
The summit will be held in Dublin, Ireland, on October 29 and 30.
Speaking to HumanIPO, Ade Dare, director of business development and research at NICOC, said: “The core objective of this summit is to create an event that will showcase the ICT capability of the Republic of Ireland to ICT stakeholders drawn from different business verticals (public and private) in Nigeria.”
He noted the country has several ICT capabilities that could attract Nigeria’s ICT stakeholders.
He said: “Ireland is the second largest exporter of computer and IT services in the world. With a highly creative and talented workforce, an open economy and a competitive corporate tax environment, Ireland has successfully attracted eight of the top 10 global information technology companies to establish a significant presence here.
“The sector’s traditional players with long-established operations – such as Intel, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Apple – have now been joined by newer firms at the vanguard of the internet and social media revolution, including Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, PayPal, eBay and most recently Twitter. Their arrival has firmly positioned Ireland as the internet capital of Europe.”
Comparing the ICT sectors of both nations, he described Nigeria’s as developing while the ICT sector in Ireland has already become consolidated.
“ICT has offered a world of opportunities to Nigerians. In spite of the gains, a number of challenges confront the sector, hindering its anticipated advancement,” Dare said.
“From the foregoing it can be safely concluded that the Nigerian ICT market is an emerging one while that of Ireland is already consolidated.”
He added that while the organisers have not reached out to government agencies, the National Assembly has promised it will send a strong delegation to the summit. He also revealed the next edition will be held in Nigeria.
He said: “This is the inaugural event which will become an annual one going forward. Next year’s summit will be held in Nigeria, thus in a rotational format. Also the Irish government is going on a trade mission to Nigeria in November thus our event will be a prelude to the mission.
“We did not seek for support from any Nigerian government agency. We have however been in touch with the house committee on ICT and they have promised to send delegates.”
