The I.T. Industry Perception of Computer Professional (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN) as a Regulatory Agency for I.T. Profession in Nigeria

Abstract

Information Technology (I.T.) is very pivotal for sustaining economic, social and political development of any nation in the world. Many developed countries such as United States of America, United Kingdom, China and South Africa have I.T. professions regulated in their countries. Computer Professional (Registration Council) of Nigeria is the monitoring agency for I.T. profession in Nigeria. This study therefore examined the role and contributions of Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) towards the development of I.T. profession in Nigeria. A survey was conducted to gauge the feelings of I.T. professionals on impact of CPN on I.T. profession. A total number of 60 questionnaires were administered and results show that CPN performed effectively but certain critical areas were not yet captured for overall development of I.T, sector.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Information Technology sometimes referred to as Information and Communication Technology is the heart of world enterprises, utilities and public sector organizations. The success or failure of I.T. has significant impact in the lives of millions directly or indirectly.  It has become more important ever than before to ensure professionalism, competence and suitable qualifications in the ICT sector to achieve desired goal. (IITPSA,2019).

Several computer organizations and associations exist in Nigeria. According to Wikipedia, some of the organizations include Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Institute of Management Information System (IMIS), Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Nigerian Internet Group (NIG).  The Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) was established by decree in 1993 promulgated as Decree No 49 on June 10, 1993 to set and enforce standards of competence, conduct and ethical practice of Information and Technology profession in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Developing indigenous and quality software applications would encourage young and upcoming talents in the I.T profession. Software quality is the user’s perception on how software is able to perform in solving a problem and ease of use by the user. (Akinola et al., 2009) One of the most effective ways to promote quality and productivity in software development is the use of software inspection as a step in software development process. (Portal et.al, 1997, Gilb and Graham, 1993 , Tyran, 2006)

II. OVERVIEW OF PERFORMANCE OF CPN

The Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) has contributed immensely to the nation’s economic development in the following areas:

1. Collaboration with Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to monitor Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations.
2. Establishment of CPN Certification examinations in order to sharpen IT skills.
3. Accreditation of computing courses in tertiary institutions.
4. Organizing conferences and workshops for members.
5. Creating database of members available on the website.
6. Registration and Induction of qualified new members.
7. Career uplift for certified members in public service.

III. METHODOLOGY

A questionnaire was designed for capturing the data used in this survey. The questionnaire is divided into two sections with a total of six (6) questions. Information on the biography of the respondents were sought in section A while the perception of the respondents on performance of CPN in I.T. profession were stated in section B. Questions number 1 to 3 in Table 1 form section A while questions number 4 to 6 were in section B.  A total of 60 questionnaires were administered.

Fig 1.6 shows that 47% of the respondents asserted that addressing I.T. skills shortage among youth will promote CPN while 29% of the respondents want registration and licencing of relevant organization. 15% of the respondents want the CPE examination restructured and the remaining 9% want the CPN portal to be updated to reflect current trends about the members.

V. DISCUSSION

Results obtained shows that the sole regulatory agency for I.T. profession in Nigeria, CPN put up outstanding performance in some areas of their responsibilities such as career advancement for members in tertiary institutions, supervision of entrance examination ( Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) into tertiary institutions, registration of new members and organizing workshops and conferences. Yet, some areas still require massive input of the CPN in order to make the body achieve its full potentials.

Conclusion

The following recommendations would assist the CPN to be head and shoulders with other regulatory agencies in the country: 1) Registration and licensing of I.T. based companies, organizations, business centres and other relevant business setups. 2) Addressing I.T. skills shortage among the youths through consistent training by collaborating with tech giants such as ORACLE, Microsoft, CISCO among others. Computer quiz competitions should be organized for Universities and other tertiary institutions to create healthy competition and improve reading culture. 3) Proper and adequate maintenance of CPN portal to reflect up to date contents. Members database should be up to date (current year) to show due diligence facilitate inclusiveness. 4) Discipline should be enforced among all categories of member. Annual general meetings and other important events should be attended by members while fines should be imposed on erring members.

References

[1] Porter, A. Adam, Hervey, P. Siy, Carol A. Toman and Lawrence G. Votta. (1997) An Experiment to Access Cost Benefit in Code Inspection in Large Scale Software Development. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Vol. 23 No 6 pp. 329 - 346 June 1997. [2] Tom Gilb and Dorothy Graham (1993), “Software Inspection” Addison –Wesley Publishing Co. [3] Tyran, Craig K. (2006) “A Software Inspection Exercise for System Analysis and Design Course”. Journal of Information System and Education Vol. 17(3) [4] Akinola, Olalekan S., Osofisan, Adenike O. and Akinkunmi, Babatunde O. (2009) “Industry Perception of Software Inspection Process : Nigeria Software Industry as a Case Study”. African Journal of Computing And ICT Vol. 2(2) [5] www.cpn.gov.ng [6] www.iitpsa.org.za

Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Ayodeji O. EFUNBOADE, Olusegun A. SARUMI , Victor A. AKINRINMADE, Abigeal O. ADENIRAN. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.