Challenges Of Adopting Information And Com- munications Technology By Small And Medium Enterprises In Nigeria

The adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in Nigeria has sparked a revolution in business practices. However, the widespread use of ICT by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in organizational operations and business transactions remains abysmally low slowing socioeconomic growth and sustainable development. Therefore the main objective of this study is to identify and highlight the challenges affecting the adoption of ICTs by SME’s in Makurdi, Nigeria. The study adopts a convenience study approach based on the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) to analyze the benefits and challenges of adopting ICT tools in SMEs. The study was accomplished by administering questionnaires to a randomly selected sample size of 109 staffs of SMEs followed by analysis of their responses using SPSS Software. The results demonstrate that ICT adoption by SMEs potentially increases the efficiency of business operations, communication, connectivity and market development. However, the results also demonstrated that the cost of acquiring or accessing the latest tools and lack of electric power supply are the greatest challenges to ICT adoption by Nigerian SMEs.