THE IMPACT OF ICT ON
THE NIGERIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Information and communication
technology (ICT) offers the promise of fundamentally changing the lives of much
of the world’s population. In its various forms, ICT affects many of the
processes of government and business, how individuals live, work and interact,
and the quality of the natural and built environment. The development of
internationally comparable ICT statistics is essential for governments to be
able to adequately design, implement, monitor and evaluate ICT policies (Madueme, 2010).
Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) has now been accepted as one of the main driving force behind
organizational competitiveness in the present day business environment.
Presently, ICT is having dramatic influence on almost all areas of human activities
and one of the areas of economic activities in which this influence is most manifest
is the banking sector. The banking industry is one of the critical sectors of
the economy which makes invaluable contributions to the pace of economic growth
and development of nations (Ajayi, 2003; Madueme, 2010). However, this study
seeks to examine the impact of ICT on the Nigerian economic growth and
development.
Most developing nations including
Nigeria have embarked on various reforms that foster the use of ICTs in their
economies. These reforms tend to yield little or minimal benefits to economic growth
and development, especially when compared with the developed countries of the world.
Technological advancement is known to impact fast rate of economic development.
In Nigeria, policy on adoption of Information and Communication Technologies
was initiated in 1999, when the civilian regime came into power of government.
The operations of the licensed telecommunication service providers in the country
has created some well-felt macroeconomic effects in terms of job creation,
faster delivery services, reduced transport costs, greater security and higher
national output (Emmanuel and Adebayo, 2011).
Attempts to ensure sustainable economic
development and poverty reduction of most nations usually involve the
development of agriculture, mining, industrial as well as the service sectors.
The Industrial Revolutions in Europe and America, generally and specifically,
have been premised on technological breakthroughs. During the late 1990s, Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) was the largest contributor to growth within
capital services for both Canada and the United States (Harchaoui, 2002). Similar
trend has been observed with the economic development of China, Korea, Taiwan, India,
South Africa, and other emerging economic powers (Fuss and Waverman, 2005).
At the wake of 2000, the Federal
Government of Nigeria embarked on an aggressive drive towards the provision of
more efficient services in the nation through its privatization and
deregulation policies the ICT subsector. The policy thrives led to the
establishment of National Telecommunication Policy in December 2001. The
policy, among other things, recognized the need for the establishment of an
enabling environment for deregulation and rapid expansion of the
telecommunication services in the country. The mission statement of the
government was to use ICTs for Education, Creation of Wealth, Poverty Eradication,
Job Creation, and Global Competitiveness. The policy objective was to develop
globally competitive quality manpower in ICTs and related disciplines. This
entails developing a pool of ICT engineers, scientists, technicians and
software developers. Consequently, attractive career opportunities will emerge
in addition to development of software’s and computer components that can earn
the nation some foreign exchange. The implementation of ICTs policy led to the
adoption of Global System for Mobile-Communications (GSM) and its related
components in Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
In Nigeria, provision of public
infrastructure is grossly inadequate and poor. Necessary telecommunication
services, as public infrastructure, needed for meaningful investment are
lacking and, where found, are very costly. Teledensity in Nigeria is still very
low.
The introduction of the GSM in Nigeria
was to expand the teledensity in the country and to make telephone services
cheaper and accessible to the common person as it had been introduced in some
African countries like South Africa, Ghana, and Benin Republic among others. GSM
is ICT based telecommunication that can contribute to the growth and
development of any nation. These Telecommunication Networks have created
significant effects on the gross domestic product (GDP) of Nigeria in terms of
job creation, communication linkages, connectivity, security of lives, and
reduced transport costs among other. Past studies on the developing economy
have bothered on the challenges and roles of ICTs on economic growth (Carayamis
and Popescu, 2005; Ndukwe, 2003, 2004; Igwe, 2005). Thus, this study examines
the impact of ICT on the Nigerian economic growth and development.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
general objective of this study is to analyze the impact of ICT on the Nigerian
economic growth and development and the following are the specific objectives:
1. To
examine the
impact of ICT on the Nigerian economic growth and development.
2. To identify ways by which ICT can
contribute to economic growth and development.
3. To determine the factor limiting the
use of ICT in all sectors of the Nigerian economy.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What
is the impact
of ICT on the Nigerian economic growth and development?
2. What are the ways by which ICT can
contribute to economic growth and development?
3. What are the factors limiting the use
of ICT in all sectors of the Nigerian economy?
1.5 HYPOTHESIS
HO:
ICT has not contributed to Nigerian economic growth and development.
HA:
ICT has contributed to Nigerian economic growth and development.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
following are the significance of this study:
1. The
outcome of this study will be a useful guide to the government of Nigeria,
policy makers and the general public on how ICT can be used as a tool for
economic growth and development of Nigeria.
2. This research will also serve as a
resource base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out
further research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to
provide new explanation to the topic
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This
study on the impact of ICT on Nigerian economic growth and development will
covers every area of ICT used in Nigeria and its effect on the economic growth
and development.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint– Insufficient fund tends to impede the
efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature
or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire
and interview).
Time constraint– The researcher will
simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently
will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
REFERENCES
Ajayi,
G.O. (2003). e-Government in Nigeria’s e-Strategy; The Fifth Annual African Computing
and Telecommunications Summit, Abuja, Nigeria (2001) The National Information
Technology Policy (2002). Licensing of the Second National Operator (SNO) http://www.ncc.gov.ng/ (2003) Projects of Nitda www.nitda.org.
Emmanuel,
O.S and Adebayo, A.A (2011). ICT’s, Service Delivery and Operational Performance
in Nigerian Banks: A Survey of Empirical Research. An International Multidisciplinary
Journal, Ethiopia. Vol.5 (4). 44-49
Fuss, M.
and Waverman, L. (2005). The Networked Computer: The Contribution of Computing
and Telecommunications to Economic Growth Productivity OR Why Is There No New
Economy in Old Europe. A Production Function Approach, London Business School,
Digital Transformations Working Paper NO. 1.
Harchaoui,
G. (2002). ICT Diffusion and Potential Output Growth. Banque de France. (Online)
Available at http://www.banque.com
Madueme
I.S. (2010). Evaluation of the Impact of Information Communication Technology
on Banking Efficiency Using the Trancedental Logarithmic Production Function
and CAMEL Rating, International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology,
Vol. 2(1) pp. 1 – 6.