ISPON President Challenges NBS Data on Software Sector's 0.2% GDP Contribution
James Agada argues that a workforce of one million people suggests a significant undercount of the industry's economic impact.
The newly inaugurated President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), James Agada, has formally challenged official data regarding the economic impact of the nation's software industry. The dispute centers on figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that place the sector's contribution to Nigeria's GDP at less than 0.2%.
Agada argues this figure is an undercount that fails to reflect the actual scale of the industry. According to the ISPON president, the software sector employs more than one million people, both directly and indirectly, and consists of over 100,000 registered companies. "While our sector reputedly employs over a million people... the latest NBS reports indicate we contribute less than 0.2% to the national GDP," Agada stated, highlighting a disconnect between the industry's operational footprint and its statistical representation.
The Telecom Dominance
This discrepancy is stark when compared to the broader Information and Communication sector, which contributed 11.74% to Nigeria's total real GDP in the second quarter of 2026. However, this growth is heavily skewed toward telecommunications, the primary driver with a 9.72% contribution to real GDP. This leaves the software subsector as a marginal player in official records, despite the high volume of practitioners and firms operating within the country.
The Cost of Foreign Dependency
Agada attributes the low reported GDP contribution to a systemic lack of local patronage and a heavy reliance on international vendors. He points to the high costs of foreign software licenses, subscriptions, and support fees as a primary drain on potential domestic growth. By paying these fees to overseas entities, Nigeria exports value that could otherwise bolster its own economy.
"The licenses, subscriptions, support fees, and service fees we pay outward represent revenue that should be growing our own national GDP," Agada noted. This suggests that while the demand for software is high, the financial benefit is largely captured by foreign firms rather than local developers.
A Gap in Government Spending
The controversy persists even as the Nigerian government invests heavily in digital infrastructure. In 2026, approximately N24 billion was allocated to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and nine other agencies for software-related projects, with NIMC alone receiving N7.58 billion. Local practitioners argue this spending does not translate into domestic industry growth due to a cycle of low appreciation for local software solutions.
What's Next
Industry leaders are now calling for a more accurate method of tracking the software sector's value to ensure it is not overlooked in national planning. The central question remains whether the 0.2% figure is a failure of statistical tracking by the NBS or a symptom of a strategic failure to capture software value locally. Until domestic patronage increases and foreign dependency decreases, the software sector may continue to struggle to translate its large workforce into a significant GDP percentage.