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
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
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:
To examine the impact of ICT on the Nigerian
economic growth and development.
To identify ways by which ICT can contribute to
economic growth and development.
To determine the factor limiting the use of ICT in
all sectors of the Nigerian economy.
What is the impact of ICT on the Nigerian economic
growth and development?
What are the ways by which ICT can contribute to
economic growth and development?
What are the factors limiting the use of ICT in
all sectors of the Nigerian economy?
HO: ICT has not contributed to Nigerian economic
growth and development.
HA: ICT has contributed to Nigerian economic
growth and development.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:
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.
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
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.