Impact of Internet Subscriptions on Economic Development of Nigeria (2016-2020)
Chapter One of Impact of Internet Subscriptions on Economic Development of Nigeria (2016-2020)
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Information and communication technology (ICT) advancement has prompted decrease of costs of ICT products and services. Expanding productivity and nature of ICT have likewise roused individual and corporate clients to put resources into ICT. ICT advancement has likewise upgraded efficiency and financial development in many developed and developing nations. For example, ICT advancement has enhanced the rate of productivity and economic growth in United States of America (USA), Australia, Sweden, Finland, and Ireland (Harchaoui, Tarkhani, Jackson and Armstrong, 2002). Developing nations including Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, China, Korea, and Taiwan have likewise profited by ICT progression (International Monetary Fund, 2001). In Nigeria today, the telecommunication industry has been noted to be the quickest developing business and employer of labour (Olaleye, 2014), particularly the wireless telephone sector that provides services to individual customers using the Global Systems of Mobile (GSM). Competing in the global market has gotten all the more testing and complex for a developing nation, for example, Nigeria. Achieving seriousness is not just about growth of an economy, yet additionally involves how viable ICT is being used in a nation. Economic development can be improved by correspondence headway, in this manner reducing transaction and information costs (Kodakanchi, Abuelyaman, Kuofie, and Qaddour, 2006; Kramer, Jenkins, and Katz, 2007).
Investment in ICT in Nigeria has expanded fundamentally; in this way expanded ICT penetration in the country. Nigeria’s ICT space has improved hugely from 400,000 lines in 1996 to more than 14 million lines in 2005 through autonomous guideline of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) by empowering private area investment and expanded sound challenge (NCC, 2014). This however forms the basis of this study. For instance, investigating the impact of the internet on economic development of Nigeria from 2005-2015. Increment in the index of the populace to telecommunication gadgets likewise encouraged increased interest in the Nigeria’s broadcast communications segment (ITU, 2015). Private sector participation in the Nigeria’s broadcast communications division has affected the segment significantly. Private sector participation in the part in 2006 was over USD$8 billion (N1.2 trillion); increased to USD$150 million out of 2000; and rose to USD$12 billion (N1.8 trillion) in 2010 (All Africa, 2010). Despite huge interest in the Nigeria’s telecommunication sector; there are as yet visit organizes issues, significant expense of making calls, and relative temperamental internet providers in the nation. Meanwhile, digital mobile (GSM) and wireless services providers claimed that the present poor and costly services regime is as a result of unconducive business environment caused by institutional factors such as government policy and insufficient social infrastructural facilities (energy, security, water etc.) in Nigeria. The issue of ICT and economic development has gotten a lot of consideration concerning developed nations instead of the developing nations.
Internet arrangements in most developing nations have seen exceptional quick development in the most recent decades. This is to a great extent because of various factors, for example, privatization and exchange progression approaches, just as advances in telecommunication technology. All these have given rise to lower network installation cost and greater service affordability (GSMA, 2014; Minges, 2015). The size of dissemination of web innovation and the transformational impact it keeps on having over all sectors of the economy cannot be overemphasized. It enables the making of new business forms and in this way boosting employment or job creation. It likewise increases economic development and growth.
In a progression of experimental research studies, Nair and Kuppusamy (2004, 2005) and Nair, Kuppusamy and Davison (2005) featured the presence of ICT dispersion dissimilarity among developed and developing nations. A lot of these studies are conducted basically for developed nations. Not many comparative studies on developing nations have been embraced all the more as of late, including: Kuppusamy and Santhapparaj (2005) and Kuppusamy and Shanmugam (2007) which concentrated on the effect of ICT to Malaysia over the periods 1975 – 2002 and 1983 – 2004 respectively; and Okogun, Awoleye and Siyanbola (2012) on economic value of ICT investment in Nigeria over the periods 1999 – 2009. This shows there is a significant research hole concerning whether investment in ICT impact on economic growth in Nigeria, utilizing more extensive and ongoing information. This study plans to fill this hole by breaking down economic value of ICT investments in Nigeria in order to find out whether ICT investments is similar with contributions of ICTs and telecommunication sector to economic growth in Nigeria.
Statement of the Problem
The Internet influences the quality of life of more than 4 billion in developing countries, especially the least fortunate and generally powerless (Madon, 2000). Choices to utilize new technological innovation to improve lives and the economy cannot be fruitful without full citizen commitment. In Nigeria, where the government has been trying to invigorate production of goods and services, the usage of ICT as an energizer to economic recuperation is viewed as vital, particularly as the nation battles to move its income base from oil to farming. In the course of recent decades, with the revelation of oil during the 1970s, Nigeria has moved from being the significant world exporter of cocoa, groundnuts, yam, and cassava to winning remote trade from sending out oil. Consequently, the development of telecommunications and the spread of ICT to all regions are basic to improving economic efficiency.
In any case, to imagine and gauge how the internet could be helpful in rolling out the improvements portrayed above, information about the individuals who might profit ought to be accessible, so policy makers would have the option to make the correct fit between the technology and the individuals who will benefit from the innovation and sustain the development that it would bring. So also, information about technology is relied upon to stir and make the normal economic changes in the lives of the individuals, specifically and the qualities of the technology prone to make it simple to utilize.
Since internet is the new media (Rogers, 1995) and distinguished as a specialized apparatus that would encourage communication to remote areas, this study plans to recognize the internet usage and its contributions to economic growth from 2005 to 2017. This study will investigate the attributes of internet technology that make innovation liable to be embraced and the internet users’ goal to utilize the technology for different reasons including search for economic information and improvement. Therefore, this study shall examine the impact of the internet on economic development of Nigeria from 2005-2015.
Research Objectives
The objective of this study is to examine the impact of internet subscriptions on economic development of Nigeria from 2016-2020. However, the specific objectives are:
- To evaluate the effect of the internet on un-employment in Nigeria from 2016 to 2020
- To evaluate the effect of the internet on Gross Domestic Product in Nigeria from 2016 to 2020
- To evaluate the effect of the internet on Per Capita Income in Nigeria from 2016 to 2020.
Research Questions
The following questions were generated during the course of this study
- What is the effect of the internet on un-employment rate in Nigeria from 2016 to 2020?
- What is the effect of the internet on un-employment rate in Nigeria from 2016 to 2020?
- What is the effect of the internet on un-employment rate in Nigeria from 2016 to 2020?
Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated for this study:
- Ho: There is no significant effect of the internet on un-employment in Nigeria.
- Ho: There is no significant effect of the internet on gross domestic product in Nigeria.
- Ho: There is no significant effect of the internet on per capita income in Nigeria.
Significance of the Study
This study is significant because no empirical research has been conducted in the area of adoption of internet technology specifically for economic improvement of the lives of the people in developing countries. It will test the assumption that people use the internet for information related to their economic well-being. This study will fill this gap and provide empirical evidence to the viability of using the internet for economic development.
The Scope of the Study
Based on the topic and the relevance of the study to business administration students and business administrators, it will therefore be carried out among business administration students and business administrators for the purpose of reliability and validity.
Definition of Terms
The following terms were used in the course of carrying out this study:
Internet: A combined network of electronic and computer networks. Examples of the Internet services include e-mail, bulletin boards, and the World Wide Web (WWW). The Internet and World Wide Web are used interchangeably in this study. Rogers (1995) traced the Internet origins to ARPRANET, a network created by the U.S. military as early as 1969 and was first made available to the U.S. public in 1983 for use in universities. By the 1990s, it became a popular form of interactive computer-mediated communication globally. The Internet allows million of people throughout the world to communicate with each other by transferring computer files, searching data bases, exchanging electronic mail, and chatting with other Internet users.
Internet Users: Internet users are those using the computer and other Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), Third Generation (3G) wireless service devices to access information on World Wide Web (WWW).
Information Communication Technology (ICT): ICT refers to and is mainly concerned with how information that is received, processed, and transmitted from one point to another through the use of technical gadgets including computers, which aid in ensuring information is sent quickly with as little distortion and cost from sender(s) to receiver(s).
Economic Development: The improvement of people‘s well being, raising people‘s standard of living, their income, access to health, education, housing and modern technology. Changes that bring about accelerated economic growth, the reduction of inequality and poverty.