NIGERIA’S Information Communication Technology (ICT) body, the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), will henceforth prosecute professionals for non compliance with standards in the country, says its registrar, Mr. Sikiru Shehu.
Sikiru, who spoke Tuesday in Lagos said the CPN had decided to deal decisively with the menace of quacks and half-baked IT professionals who hijack IT jobs in the Nigerian economy only to offer very disappointing services, a development which he said has continued to be of serious concern to both government and IT professionals in the country.
He warned that flagrant disregard for standards in the country’s IT sector had to stop as CPN would not hesitate to sanction any individual or corporate body involved in such practices.
“We have a strategy in place to checkmate unregistered and registered persons who apply for IT jobs without compliance to standardization. We have an instrument to checkmate them. It is compulsory that those who apply for IT jobs or engage in IT training must meet statutory requirements,” the CPN Registrar said.
“We check both registered and unregistered IT professionals. If you are a registered IT professional and offer sub-standard service, CPN which regulates professional activities in the IT industry will sanction you. That is the point we are trying to make.
He urged IT firms and professionals operating in the country to focus more on meeting the legal requirements as stipulated in the Act and conform to the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, he said that the need for greater professional excellence had become imperative in view of increasing deployment of IT for various purposes in the country.
Sikiru said that CPN would once again use this year’s Information Technology Professionals’ Assembly slated for next month in Abuja, as a platform to discuss issues that would take the industry to a new level.
CHINEDU OKORO in Abuja, Nigeria
