ICT Utilisation in Agric Based SMES in Akure South Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria
- November 11, 2021
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Public Administration
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
ICT Utilisation in Agric Based SMES in Akure South Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria
Titilope Ayobami Agbotoba, Hameed Olusegun Adebambo
Department of Project Management Technology, School of Logistics & Innovation Technology, The Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria
Abstract: The study examined the effect of ICT utilisation on the performance of Agric based SMEs in the study area. The study investigates the level of utilisation of ICT by Agric based SMEs in the study area. The study was carried out in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from 136 workers in agro based SMEs. Statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) through frequency and percentages statistics will be used to analyse the demographic of the respondents while Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the effect of ICT utilisation on the performance of Agric based SMEs in Akure south local government, Ondo State, Nigeria. This study finds that the beta values and the sig values of the independent variables, the beta value indicated that ICT utilization processes all made significant contributions to the performance of agro based SMEs in the study area. ICT application made the highest amount of contribution (.509), followed by ICT policy (.313), while ICT infrastructure made the least amount of contribution of (.185). Therefore, ICT utilization process; ICT application, ICT policy and ICT infrastructure all became significant at .000, .000 and .003 respectively. Finally, the study recommended among others that due to the significant positive effect that ICT utilization has on performance of SMEs, the Federal Government through the federal ministry of science and technology should support agro-entrepreneurial investors in order to expand the use and adoption of ICT by Agric based SMEs in the country.
I. INTRODUCTION
The modern economic environment which is dominated by globalization, hyper-competition, andknowledge and information revolution has revolutionized the way business is conducted (Davis, 2017). Today’s business world has been deeply influenced by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the application of ICT among business is widespread. ICT is rapidly changing global production, work and business methods and trade and consumption patterns in and between agricultural enterprises and the consumers (Davis, 2017).
