Expectations of Nigeria communities on Information and Communication Technologies

One of the major development challenges confronting Nigeria is to develop the capacities, strategies, and mechanisms necessary to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by ICTs for development. Given the potential for ICTs to induce changes, many development analysts believe that these instruments can play an important role in the development process. In Nigeria, development theorists anticipate significant changes, particularly within the fabric of communities. These expectations are generally based only on changes observed in economically more advanced societies, but are not generally supported by facts.

Expectations expressed by individuals

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) give rise to many expectations among the communities surveyed. The hope suggests that an awareness of the role that ICT instruments can play in economic and social development is emerging. The effects or changes that individuals expect from ICTs are quite varied. In general, individuals plan to apply ICTs to their main areas of activity for their own development. As a rule, users (actual or potential) expect the use of ICTs to make positive changes in their jobs, education, health, agriculture, and environment. In some communities, the inhabitants were mostly active in agriculture, small businesses, and the service sector, and the effects they expected from ICTs revolved mainly around these activities.

Production activities

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) should facilitate business development through improved access to information on product prices (inputs and outputs), on markets, and on various other resources. Therefore, in agriculture, Nigeria farmers expect ICTs to facilitate access to: high-yielding varieties at competitive prices; input suppliers; credit institutions; and information on how to improve their farming practices to increase yield. For example, farmers in the Western region of Nigeria expect ICTs to provide access to new knowledge on irrigation techniques and rice varieties for irrigated farming because they would like to shift to cash crops, which earn better economic returns.

Trade

With regard to time management, ICTs can facilitate communication and reduce the time needed for transactions. This aspect is much talked about in the rural areas. In the main production areas, producers, in the absence of any information on prices and potential outlets (notably, on the local markets), are often at the mercy of intermediaries (who generally do not add any significant value to the production chain). Some entrepreneurs hope to meet new business partners with whom they could set up large-scale farming and gain new markets for their produce. This would help them overcome constraints related to the narrowness of the local market in their farming area. Women entrepreneurs in the Lagos and Delta regions of Nigeria hoped that ICTs would give them access to information that would help them improve the financial position of their businesses.

Education and research

In education, students and teachers expected ICTs to improve their learning and teaching methods. They also hoped that they would have access to information that would help them enhance their classes and facilitate preparations for school exams. ICTs can boost research and assist in acquiring new knowledge. In Nigeria, this potential raised great expectations among the educationists, and agriculture extension service workers, who settled in the rural areas to train farmers. So far, ICTs have not been used much as a way of acquiring new knowledge. The inadequacy of local content and limited access to ICTs constitute very serious problems.

Health

ICTs should make it possible to have access to information that would help improve preventive health education. This expectation is anticipated by health workers, notably in the region rural areas, which are land-locked and are often affected by recurrent epidemics of flu, malaria, and diarrhea. The use of a computer warning system based on systematic data collection might be able to sharply reduce both mother and child mortality rates.

Social communication

As a facilitator of communication, ICTs could be able to contribute to bringing scattered members of the same family closer together (the creation and maintenance of a virtual community). The people believe that ICTs (email and telephone) can contribute to minimizing transport costs, facilitating communication, and improving social life. This aspect is very important in the specific case of poor communities with relatively low incomes and high communication needs.

Women

Women seem to be less able to express the effects they want from ICTs. The majority feel that these “instruments are not made for them.” A few women surveyed in Nigeria seek information related to health, land ownership, and easy access to credit.

Youth

Young people were very active in cultural and sports associations and most of them expressed the need to have access to support structures for their association. For example, they were looking for ways to reinforce their capacity for intervention and to obtain information on ways to cooperate with other groups. Students wanted access to pedagogic resources and information on scholarships, school exams, competitions, and vocational opportunities.

Expectations of community organizations

Apart from the effects expected at the individual level, community organizations also had their own expectations.

Facilitating communication

Community organizations would use ICTs to facilitate communication processes and to mobilize their members through the establishment of reliable, real-time communication systems, combining email, in particular, with traditional community communication systems. These organizations also expect the use of ICTs to improve management and to facilitate planning and organization of their activities. For community organizations, access to useful and relevant information for their members (e.g., economic, cultural, and sports activities) constituted a major concern. This information would be used to help members make better and more rapid decisions in their various activities. Generally, ICTs can improve the capacities of grassroots organizations to communicate and make their voices heard through the roles they play in their communities.

Establishing networks

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be used as a medium to establish networks between community members or with the outside world to improve the institutional context of these communities. In the rural communities, ICTs, particularly Internet technologies, are expected to allow access to new communication tools and to provide a medium for discussion and exchange among different community organizations. These organizations expect to enhance their knowledge about the environment and development. These communities also expect ICTs to lead to the creation of new organizations and to the development of active partnerships between these organizations and other institutions. They also hope to influence development policies and encourage the changes needed to ensure improved natural resource management in communities, which are increasingly affected by ecological problems. In Nigeria, ICTs are considered as development tools to facilitate access to information and to make recent information available to expand the knowledge base of local populations.

Establishing modern communication systems

Community organizations expect ICTs to provide modern, reliable, and fast communication systems that can be combined with traditional community communication systems (e.g., weekly markets and traditional drum systems).

Improving working conditions

Recurrently, the populations expect ICTs to improve working conditions within community organizations, particularly through improved time and resource management. This is important to these organizations because most of the community actors are voluntary workers. In remote and land-locked regions, ICTs are expected to reduce the isolating effects of distance and allow effective participation of scattered actors in community life.

Increasing external contacts and diversifying partners

Entrepreneurs expect to gain more external contacts and thus increase the prospects of diversification of their economic partners. ICTs are also expected to contribute to employment generation through the creation of new jobs.

Conclusion

In general, community expectations directly correspond to the theoretical effects described in the literature on ICT. They reflect the level of understanding that communities have of the relationship between ICTs and the improvement of their living conditions.

The positive attitude of communities toward ICTs is also remarkable: very few respondents are concerned with the potential negative effects of ICTs. This attitude is very important and can be construed as a preference to adopt ICTs, or at least as non-rejection of these tools by the communities. This attitude also suggests that the transforming potential of ICTs can be exploited to enhance development efforts.

With regard to how projects on the introduction of ICTs can be effective, the people suggest that there probably cannot be a single strategy. Basic studies that seek to highlight the diverse needs and expectations of people must be systematically conducted. Furthermore, these expressed expectations can be used as reference points for future investigations designed to measure specific changes over time due to the use of ICTs.

Expectations of Nigeria communities on Information and Communication Technologies by Victor Oluremi Adedoyin