ICTworks by Inveneo

Facebook has finally launched Facebook Zero in 10 African countries (and 45 countries globally), and I say this is reason to celebrate!

While Kevin Donovan worries about the impact of Facebook's lack of privacy concerns on unsophisticated users and Erik Hersman bemoans Facebook Zero's impact on local software innovation, I'm with Steve Song - Facebook Zero is sexy.

Facebook Zero will drive ICT usage

Like I said back in February, Facebook Zero is web chang’aa for Africa, and like chang’aa, jobs will be lost, marriages will break up, and all manner of parents and elders will claim its a blight on the land as Facebook addiction spreads from urban elite out to every corner of Africa.

Facebooking will drive e-everything

Unlike actual chang’aa, Facebook Zero will also have a positive effect - its gonna increase demand for full Internet services for every category of content and hardware platform. All those new Facebook users will also become new news, ecommerce, employment, and education content consumers.

Facebook will get Africa online

Right now, many ICT companies in Africa don't even have websites. Why? Because their clients aren't online, so there is no need for them to be. Facebook Zero will change all that - anyone doing business will need to be on Facebook, just to prove existence to an inquisitive client. Now extrapolate that out to everyday life - Facebook will be the catalyst that gets African online when everything else to date has not.

We all will benefit from Facebook Zero

While I do worry about local software development (more than online privacy), I am not worried that Facebook Zero will stifle innovation. In fact, I think it will be a great boon to ICT innovation. Why? Because it will vastly increase the base on which innovation can occur. Instead of catering to a rounding error of a country's population, web developers will have the whole country to sell to.

Even hardware vendors will be inundated with Facebookers. Yes, mobile phones will lead in usage by far. But make no mistake. Those that get addicted to Facebook on mobiles will want the full screen upgrade - for Facebook and all the other Internet destinations.

And yes, even privacy will get a boost. Just wait till the first national scandal that breaks from a Facebook privacy setting change.

The market opportunity for Nigerian software development is stunning, if you take a moment to look at its size. First we have Umar Bindir, Director General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), estimating that:

"About N25 billion has been spent by different companies, especially the banking sector, to acquire foreign software and other forms of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products for their operations in the past decade and this affects only the companies in Nigeria that registered their technology transfer agreements" with NOTAP.

Figuring that registrations with NOTAP are not common with small business or personal usage, Nigeria's annual software imports is estimated at some $1billion (N1.3 trillion) annually, according to All Africa. Note that those are just software import figures. If Nigeria could transfer even a few percentage points of that spend into domestic sales, it would have a robust software development industry.

Look, Nigerians can code too

Domestic software production challenges

Yet the most recent Nigerian software industry profile from 2004, noted how far the country needs to go to capture that spend.

While there are 100+ active companies, and virtually all private-owned, most firms are small enterprises (11-50 staff) and focus on installation, customization and training of imported packages for private companies in the domestic market. In fact, the research found that there are signs of decline in development of locally-written software. The paper goes on to suggest that Nigeria needs strengthen software development practices, like Kenya is doing already, and protect local firms from imported software.

One solution: Buy Naija Code

I say that both can be achieved through a "Buy Naija Code" program started by the government but really contingent on business and consumer participation. Based on similar programs for other industries, the government should require a percentage of all software it buys to be written in Nigeria, by Nigerians, but hold this code to international standards.

Then, building on its success in this demand creating quality Nigerian software development companies, expand the "Buy Naija Code" concept to a national ad campaign, playing on national pride to excite the country with pride in its own skills. This would also offer a rebuff to those who think "419" when "Nigeria" and "Internet" are mentioned together.

"Buy Naija Code" would bring Nigeria its own software development industry that writes code, not just installs others.

The World Bank has released a US$1.5 million grant for adoption of software standards by Kenya developers, a move expected to improve the global appeal of local software developers.

The development of software standards is part of regional efforts to help local developers gain global recognition.

The grant will be disbursed through tenders to be advertised widely. The local software industry is expected to benefit from the Kenya ICT Board's collaboration with global brands such as Oracle and Red Hat.

"The missing link has always been in standards; it takes a while for a company to be convinced that the local developer is capable of delivering an internationally acceptable product," said Paul Kukubo, CEO of the Kenya ICT Board.

http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/08/28/world-bank-funds-aim-...

Theresa Carpenter Sondjo over at Appfrica has three great posts up on tips and tricks for freelance software developers to work better and more profitably with their clients, while keeping costs low by working out of cybercafes:

1. Advice for Freelance Developers: Getting a Better Contract
2. Your Client Just Asked for What?!?? Price Negotiations for Beginners
3. No Connection? No problem! Practical Advice for Freelancing From Cybercafés

Appfrica at work in Uganda

With the software development resources available in Africa, how can we encourage people and companies to shift their coding needs to the continent? One way is for companies to highlight the percentage of their software development budget spent with developers local to Africa.

And that's the goal of Coded in Country:

One option we hope many groups can put their support behind is to promote a brand akin to to the “FairTrade” label for software projects in which a software package or module can be certified as “Coded in Country” if a sufficient percentage of the software development budget was spent on local developers. Projects will be encouraged to report their “CIC number”, i.e., the percentage of their software development budget that is local.

I really like this idea - I know that within Inveneo, we always looking to increase the local participation in our projects, and I hope the Coded in Country concept will expand to include project budgets as well as software development funding. With the ever-increasing ICT skills in Africa, there is no reason why funders like USAID could not start requiring a percentage of ICT-related funding to be Africa-based.

Well, as long as everyone recognizes that we're talking time and not materials. Sad but true - almost all technology equipment is made in Asia today, not in Africa or the USA, and that's not going to change.