Information and Communication Technology Applications in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (Smes) Funding in Nigeria: An Impact Assessment

摘要

In developing and developed countries, small and medium scale enterprises play important roles in the process of industrialization and economic growth. Apart from increasing per capita income and output, they create employment opportunities, enhance regional economic balance through industrial dispersal and generally promote effective resource utilization considered critical to engineering economic development and growth. However, the seminal role played by SMEs in Nigeria notwithstanding its development has become an emerging topic of great importance for academia and real sector. It is on account of the above problems that this paper examines the impact of Information and Communication Technology infrastructure on Nigerian Small and Medium Scale Enterprises funding arrangements. The methodology employed in this paper is opinion survey and result are presented using tables and charts. The paper reveals that SMEs in Abuja, Nigeria do not seem to be acquiring relevant Information and Communication Technology infrastructures needed for their funding arrangements, although computers were found in virtually all the SMEs offices they were not connected to the information super highway. The paper underscores the importance of Information and Communication Technology Application for SMEs to be relevant, they have to devise ways of bridging the digital divide and recommends that SMEs must equip themselves adequately with of Information and Communication Technology facilities and computers should necessarily be connected to the information super highway while the energy sector should urgently be over-hauled to ensure constant and uninterrupted electricity supply.