Florence Seriki, the President of Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) wants young Nigerian innovators to focus on the hardware segment of the ICT sector because it has proven to be “profitable, rewarding and encouraging.”

Seriki, who also double as CEO of Omatek Technologies, a Nigerian PC maker, spoke on behalf of the association at the 2014 edition of DigitalAfrica Conference where she told attendees that hardware remains effective infrastructure tool for enabling growth in any developing nation.

Seriki added that involvement of young Nigerians in ICT hardware manufacturing will cut the rate of unemployment in Nigeria and cut the rate of insurgency as most youth get engaged and occupied with positive endeavours.

According to her ”the last digital conference was tailored towards manufacturing the hardware portion of ICT which we have not fully employed in Africa. We need to learn how to be producers not consumers of finished products.”

She told attendees at the forum that, “we as an industry have harmonised to become one as you will notice. Everyone is here and all the sectors that make up the industry are here as one voice. We are keen to partner with government to achieve the goals of e-Transformation.

Seriki added that ITAN is partnering with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to promote local content in the country.

According to the Association’s President, ”ITAN desires to explore a public private partnership (PPP) with the ministry to expand opportunities for local capacity building and deployment of IT solutions for citizens and government.”