Contextual Assessment of Adoption and Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by Small Businesses in Lagos, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study examines the level of ICT usage by small business in Nigeria. Empirical arguments indicate that small businesses in Nigeria have low levels of ICT usage within their business processes, which consequently limits their capacity to fully benefit from the opportunities which ICTs offer for business process efficiency, growth, competitive advantage and new markets. A qualitative approach is adopted which employed observations, interviews and analysis of documents of the small businesses covered. This is backed up by a quantitative benchmarking of Nigerian businesses to other small businesses in select African countries; this is achieved by using secondary data from the World Economic Forum's 2013 Networked Readiness Index (NRI). The NRI is a component framework adopted in the annual Global Information Technology Report (GITR) published by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The paper concludes that the level of ICT usage by small businesses in Nigeria is significantly low, even when compared with what is obtainable in the other African countries benchmarked by the World Economic Forum's NRI. The study provides empirical evidence for low level of ICT usage among small businesses in Lagos, Nigeria.