Information Technology for Development 9 (2000) 91–104 IOS Press
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Availability, accessibility and use of information technologies in Nigerian federal agencies: a preliminary survey M.A. Tiamiyu Africa Regional Centre for Information Science, P.O. Box 22133, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Tel.: +234 2 8103610; E-mail:
[email protected];
[email protected] Abstract. This paper assesses the availability, accessibility and use of information technology equipment in Nigerian federal government agencies based on a survey of 119 personnel of ministries, parastatals and government-controlled banks who participated in various training programmes of the Nigerian National Centre for Economic Management and Administration during 1997. The survey revealed that in spite of the 1988 Civil Service Reforms that was expected to institutionalize modern information processing cultures in the agencies, there appears to be inadequate levels of availability and accessibility of modern IT components in the agencies. There were also substantial gaps between perception of need and actual opportunity to use some of the IT components in the agencies. Although government-owned banks had higher availability and accessibility of various IT components than ministries and parastatals, the gap was not as large as one would have expected in view of differences in the resources and business environments of the banks compared the ministries and parastatals. The study showed that most Nigerian government agencies were in Nolan’s initiation, or at best, early contagion stages of computerization.
1. Introduction MacDonald [1] has noted that government agencies are often slower than their private sector counterparts in adopting and exploiting modern IT because they usually have monopoly status, are non-profit oriented, and are often subject to intense political scrutiny. All these factors curb their inclination towards IT innovation and risk-taking. Of course, private firms may be able to afford costly but strategic IT because profits from previous exploitation of IT can be ploughed back into their business, which is not so for public agencies that often must depend solely on politically-determined public funds. Hence, public agencies often end up emphasizing political more than economic considerations in their adoption of IT for strategic purposes. In developing countries, such political considerations are often so dominant that the need to exploit modern IT for improved public goods and service delivery is totally eclipsed. Hence, IT may be seen not as a desirable productivity boosting resource, but as an undesirable labour-saving strategy in a labourabundant socio-economy. Also compounding such political impediments to the operational and strategic use of IT in public agencies are technical and socio-economic barriers, which, as noted for Nigeria by Iromantu [2], and for the Nigerian banking industry by Woherem [3] include unfavourable terms of trade which makes IT imports very expensive even for banks, a severely underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure, and lack of local skills for the development, operation and maintenance of sophisticated IT systems. The last factor is even more severe in Nigerian public agencies because the poor remuneration of their employees does not enable them to attract or keep qualified IT personnel from the under-supplied local IT labour market. 0268-1102/00/$8.00 2000 – IOS Press. All rights reserved
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So the question still remains: what have been the developments so far in the exploitation of IT in public agencies in the public sector of developing countries generally, and Nigeria specifically? This question was addressed by a 1988 study of IT developments and applications in eleven sub-Saharan African Commonwealth countries, courtesy of the Commonwealth Secretariat [4]. The countries were Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. That was when costly mainframes, minicomputers and associated software systems dominated the IT scene in many African organizations. Among the findings of the study were that, due to the high cost of the technology at the time, most of the major computer systems and applications in the countries were spearheaded by the government. There were also efforts to control and coordinate the acquisition of the technology in the countries during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. In Nigeria, for instance, a Central Computer Committee set up in 1978 considered all applications for computer imports. Major computer centres were set up as data processing units or departments in ministries (usually Finance) for financial and statistical applications. Specifically in respect of Nigeria, the study reported mainframe and minicomputer systems in: the Federal Ministry of Finance, the finance ministries of 12 of the then 21 states, Federal Ministries of Works, Federal Department of Forestry, Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd., Custom and Excise Department, National Population Bureau, Fisheries Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Federal Mortgage Bank, West African Examinations Council, and Nigerian Airways. Most Federal universities also had computer centres, but most research institutes lacked computing facilities, except for the foreign-sponsored and well-equipped International Institute for Tropical Agriculture. Most of the computer systems were used primarily for payroll, personnel, research, examinations and records applications. But all these were before the microcomputer revolution gained foothold in African countries in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The computing installations, systems and applications reported by the 1988 study must have either broken down or been replaced by other mainframe, mini- and micro-computer systems. For instance, the University of Ibadan’s IBM 360/25 installed in 1970 broke down a long time ago, and work at the University’s Computing Centre is now entirely microcomputer-based. Early introduction of microcomputers into public agencies usually began as components of aid packages and projects. An early example was the experimental use of microcomputers in Kenyan agricultural agencies supported by funds from the Harvard Institute for International Development [5]. The computers were used for budgeting, expenditure reporting, word processing of feasibility reports, and monitoring of external aid claims, etc. Since then African countries have witnessed a deluge of microcomputer systems of all kinds. In no time, the courtesy of not complaining too loudly about foreign aid projects quickly rendered the IT acquisition control agencies of the earlier period irrelevant in most African countries. Also, microcomputers’ declining costs and ease of maintenance, sales pitches by local microcomputer vendors, and increasingly decentralized IT acquisition by public agencies, have all combined to create uncertainty about actual developments in, and status of, IT use and management in African public agencies. So, what has been the developments in, and status of, IT in the public agencies of developing countries, and more specifically Nigeria, since the late 1980’s? And knowing that, what IT strategies are imperative for Nigerian public sector agencies in the transition to both the new millennium and democratic governance after more than fifteen years of military dictatorships and economic sanctions? An indication of what one may find on the ground is provided by Woherem [6] who reviewed the problems with software maintenance in developing countries and mentioned many Nigerian cases. Indeed, Woherem’s review clearly shows that African countries should expect a rude shock from the “Millennium bug” unless there
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had been significant improvements in software maintenance attitudes and practices since he wrote. Both Iromantu [2] and Woherem [3] have also mentioned the very constraining Nigerian government policy and telecommunications environments. Most recent commentaries on the Nigerian IT scene often lack actual data beyond specific mentioned cases. Hence, one is often not very sure of the cross-sectional trends and status of IT development and use in various sectors of the Nigerian economy, and particularly, in the public sector agencies. There is therefore a clear need for periodic assessment studies of developments and use of IT in Nigerian public agencies, as the basis for recommendations on strategies for IT investment and use in the new millennium. Hence, the present study, which among other issues, surveys the availability, accessibility and use of IT components in Nigerian Federal agencies. 2. Conceptual frameworks Information technology (IT) is often defined differently by different people in terms of either tools, processes and/or knowledge. For instance, Baker [7] defined IT basically in terms of tools, as “computers, microelectronics and telecommunications equipment used to produce, obtain and send information”. But Tjaden [8], adopt a knowledge-centered definition of IT as a belief or paradigm about information that allows for predictions about information. In other words, IT comprises knowledge about the nature, interrelationships and uses of data and information. The diversity of perspectives from which people describe IT probably accounts for the very comprehensive UNESCO definition of IT as comprising “the scientific, technological and engineering disciplines and the management techniques used in information handling and processing, their applications; computers and their interaction with men and machines, and associated social, economic and cultural matters” [9]. Clearly, the knowledge, processes and tools of information technology are closely interwoven. New IT knowledge are often applied as new IT processes with the help of new IT tools. New knowledge about information often translates into newer information technology artifacts such as more efficient computers, more integrated telecommunications systems, and more knowledgeable human beings. In turn, innovative IT tools in specific contexts can beget new knowledge in other contexts about the nature, interrelationships, processes and uses of information. Nowadays, discussions of information technology usually focus on issues concerning the innovative application and use of leading edge computing and telecommunications systems and products for strategic or competitive exploitation of information within private sector businesses. However, “useful” information technology in specific organizations and contexts demands the harmonious integration of computing, telecommunications and manual information technologies within those contexts. Such harmonious integration of technologies is the essence of office information systems, which Irving and Higgins [10] describes as “a seamless integration of telecommunications, data processing and personal computing with manual business processes; which supports business functions; and which improves effectiveness, efficiency and quality of work life”. Examples of manual and traditional office information technologies would be IT knowledge and processes associated with such paper-based IT tools such as pens, filing cabinets, paper files, and manual typewriters, as well as such old communication and data processing tools as telephones, telex, table calculators, adding machines, and duplicating machines. On the other hand, the relatively more modern office information technologies would be IT knowledge and processes entailing the use of such equipment as computers, fax, local area networks and Internet access, photocopiers, overhead projectors, etc. Of concern in this article is the harmonious development and integration of manual and modern information technologies in the offices of public agencies of developing countries such as Nigeria. But such
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seamless integration of the newer electronic with the older manual components of office technologies is often not easy even in developed countries with their well developed information technology cultures, and is much more difficult to achieve in the developing countries where the newer technologies are perceived as foreign and too costly, and are either poorly understood or mistrusted. Moreover, in developing countries, the newer technologies are often introduced in incorrect doses, or without the supportive infrastructure, such as reliable electrical energy, telecommunications and equipment maintenance services, etc. But as noted by Tjaden [8], information technology must be seen as a belief system for thinking about and exploiting information, which in most public agencies in developing countries is still rooted in traditional public service cultures. Key aspects of such cultures, as identified by Corkery [11] and Fofana [12] include negative information protectionism and anti-modern information technology policies in order to promote lack of accountability by either dictatorial governments and/or corrupt civil servants. Thus, in assessing the status of IT in public agencies in developing countries, we should be considering the use of the exciting new computing and telecommunications technologies alongside the traditional methods and tools that are still largely dominant in the public agencies of most developing countries. What IT development strategies would be appropriate for different kinds of organizations? Nolan’s [13] stages of development hypothesis suggested that organizations evolve, probably inevitably, through different stages in the process of developing their computerized information technologies and systems. Following Nolan, Kanter [14] suggested six such stages: (i) the initiation of computing for the first time in some unit(s) of the organization, followed by (ii) uncontrolled contagion of the computing systems in other units. However, because such uncoordinated growth of computing systems is wasteful of resources, that stage is then followed by that of (iii) strict managerial control of all computing activities. Such control usually negatively affect both useful and wasteful computing activities. The organization eventually realizes the critical need to coordinate and link its information processing and management systems, thereby transiting to the stage of (iv) integration whence the erstwhile separate computing systems are coupled through computing networks and shared databases. Much later, the organization may transit to the stage of (v) periodic repositioning of its information resources and systems for strategic and competitive gains, but only after it comes to fully understand the real essence of information resources management. Kanter notes that the stage of (vi) full maturity of the organization’s information system is often a moving target that is seldom attained. Many organizational variables change or must be changed in order for the organization to evolve through the different IT stages. Among the variables are: organizational knowledge of computerized systems; distribution of authority for information activities; level of centralization and integration of organizational data and processing activities and resources, degree of institutionalization of information resources management processes; relationship between additional IT investments and organizational productivity, etc. Hence, the effective development of organizational IT resources and systems demands careful analysis and implementation of an optimal mix of strategies to change these and other variables, thereby moving the organization from a current stage of IT development to the next most appropriate and feasible stage in line with changing organizational requirements. During the initiation stage, for instance, it often would be appropriate to sensitize top management to the opportunities and requirements of computerized systems. By contrast, during the integration stage, the computerization culture would
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have come to stay, and focus would be on achieving consensus among the different organizational departments and coalitions on how best to network and integrate data resources and re-design existing data processing systems. Further, during the repositioning stage, strategies would be needed toward increasing the dynamism and flexibility of the organization’s information systems for synchronization with the organization’s changing strategic goals. Hence, the question of how best to further develop an organization’s IT resources can be answered by first carefully studying the organization to ascertain the stage of IT development already attained, and then implementing the most cost-effective strategies to move the organization from its current less desirable state to a higher more desirable state in the evolutionary process, leap-froging undesirable stages as necessary. Many organizations in developed economies have been able to avoid some of the wasteful characteristics of the earlier IT developmental stages because of the high level of societal IT experience, research and development. Hence, discussion of IT development strategies in developed country contexts are now often in terms of either convergence (or integration) or reorientation (or repositioning) approaches to organizational and IT development [15,16]. The convergence approach focuses on adapting and fine-tuning of existing organizational IT systems for improved efficiency of existing systems and greater consistency among the internal organizational activities. By contrast, the reorientation approach aims for revolutionary re-design of IT systems for better performance in dynamic technological and market environments. However, most organizations in developing countries are now at the pre-integration stages of IT evolution – i.e., where their counterparts in developed countries were decades ago – although within a more complex and fluid IT environment. Clearly, public agencies in developing countries can learn from history and/or leap-frog as necessary, but we need to first understand the current status of information technologies in Nigeria public agencies as the basis for recommendations on the way forward for the agencies in the new millennium. 2.1. Recent developments in Nigerian public agencies The 1988 Civil Service Reforms introduced substantial re-design of Nigerian public agencies. The reforms re-structured the agencies into four main departments: Administration and Personnel; Finance and Supplies; Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS); along with a few Operations/Services departments. In particular, the creation of the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS) represented action toward developing both integrated and knowledge-based organizational systems in the Nigerian public sector. The DPRS of each agency would encompass all the data processing and technocratic units including research and development, data processing, records management, library and information support units and services. There were also plans for integrated databases, although at the time most public agencies had not even began to computerize. However, the DPRS have since then been facing a number of frustrating problems, including: hostile organizational cultures; internal opposition to the DPRS from other departments; lack of IT equipment; poor pay package, and hence inability to attract and keep skilled personnel; etc. There were also suspicion and fear of plans to scrap the DPRS innovation as part of the envisaged changes to the 1988 reforms. All these reflected the difficulty of introducing computer-age integration of operations into basically traditional civil service cultures and manual information systems of the agencies. Some of the teething problems faced by the DPRS had been highlighted in an earlier article [17]. DPRS staffers were not themselves impressed by their performance, as shown in a recent survey of former participants in the training programmes of the National Centre for Economic Management and Administration. The survey found that only about 62, 57, 39 and 37 percent of the DPRS staffers agreed that their respective departments were adequately performing their statistics, planning, records, and research functions [18].
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Ten years after the introduction of the 1988 reforms is a long enough period to begin to assess the impact of the reforms in transforming the status of IT in Nigerian public agencies. Hence, the 1997 study to assess various aspects of IT use in Nigerian public agencies, including the availability, control and use of IT, as well as perceptions by agency personnel of IT development problems, strategies and impact in the agencies. This paper reports our findings in respect of the problems, strategies and impact. Findings in respect of the availability, accessibility, need for, and use of, various IT components are reported in related article by the author [19]. 2.2. Research objectives The objectives of the survey was to assess the general status of modern information technologies in Nigerian Federal Government agencies (ministries and paratastals), as well as perceptions by public servants of the availability, accessibility and use of information technologies in the agencies. We sought answers to the following specific questions: (a) To what extent are various modern IT components available and accessible in the agencies? (b) What are the major obstacles to the effective use of modern IT in the agencies, and how frequently do problems arise in the use of different IT components? (c) To what extent are specific IT components required for agency activities? (d) To what extent are personnel actually able to use the components for their activities? 3. Data collection Nigeria federal agencies comprise two main types: core ministries, and parastatals. However, the agencies can also be classified as either providing coordination services (e.g., National Planning Commission, Civil Service Commission), or providing goods and services directly to the public (e.g., Nigerian Electric Power Authority, or Nigerian Postal Service), or conducting research (e.g., National Institute of Medical Research, National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization). At the time of the study, most Federal Agencies had their headquarters in Abuja or Lagos, and field offices in all or some state capitals. In view of the preliminary nature of the study, and cost and time constraints, the study targeted the personnel of federal agencies who participated in computer-oriented training programmes organized by the National Centre for Economic Management and Administration (NCEMA), Ibadan, Nigeria, during 1997.1 The participants included personnel from a diverse range of mostly federal ministries and parastatals, as well as some personnel from a few government-controlled banks, state government agencies and local governments (see Table 1). The NCEMA training programmes varied from two weeks to three months, and the survey questionnaire was administered at the start of the various training programmes so that responses to the questionnaire items would not be unduly confounded by the exposure to the different training programmes. A total of 150 copies of the questionnaire were distributed at various times during April to July 1997. 126 of the participants completed the questionnaire, out of which 119 were found usable. Agencies are represented by unequal number of respondents in the sample; hence, the data are likely to be dominated by the agencies who contributed more respondents to the sample. Although such a sample is unlikely to be representative of the population of all federal agencies and their personnel, we believe that it is nevertheless capable of providing data for the desired general overview of the status and perceptions of modern IT at least in the agencies sampled. 1 The author thanks the Director-General, NCEMA, and the Head of Training for the opportunity to administer the questionnaire.
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Table 1 Agencies and numbers of respondents S/N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
Agency Fed. Min. Health & Soc. Serv. Fed. Min. Information/Culture Fed. Civil Serv. Comm. Fed. Min. Communications Fed. Min. Works & Housing Fed. Min. Industries Fed. Min. Estab./Mgmnt Serv. Fed. Min. Finance Fed. Min. Foreign Affairs Presidency Bureau of Budget/Planning Government House, Kano State MANR, Rivers State National Planning Commission NNPC NEPA Nig. Postal Service Nigerian Ports Plc Nig. Shippers Council Bureau of Publ. Enterprises Nat. Population Commission Nat. Primary Health Care Nat. Agency Food/Drug Admin. Nat. Inst. of Medical Res. Nat. Productivity Centre Agric. Dev. Project Ethiope East LG Nat. Ctr. for Agric. Mech. Nig. Airports Authority Central Bank of Nigeria NEXIM Bank UBA Plc Unspecified Total
Number 17 14 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 7 1 4 3 8 1 1 1 2 9 2 1 2 1 2 5 1 1 1 15 1 3 2 119
The questionnaire was completely structured, except for an “other” response category for most of the questions. The personal data section of the questionnaire only requested for the respondent’s agency, section of the agency, official position, ranks below the overall head of agency, and years of working experience. The remaining four sections of the questionnaire then solicited information on variables pertaining to the availability, accessibility, control, use and impact and other aspects of modern IT components generally, and also specifically in respect of the following IT components: computers, fax (as indicators of modern methods of data processing and transfer); phone lines, intercom (as indicators of external and internal communication methods); duplicating machines, photocopiers (as indicators of traditional and modern methods of document reproduction); and overhead projectors (as indicator of in-house presentation and training methods). Computer networking and Internet technologies were not surveyed in the
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study because computer networking, Internet awareness, and access in Nigerian public agencies were then very limited. Collected data were analyzed both at the level of individual IT components, and also at the aggregate level by averaging over the components, or over related IT variables to obtain summary indices of respondents’ overall perceptions of the different IT variables.
4. Data analyses and discussion The data were analyzed at both the aggregate level of all respondents irrespective of agency, and also to compare the categories of agencies. 4.1. Aggregate analyses 4.1.1. IT availability Aggregate analyses of the data were undertaken to assess the level of availability and accessibility of the representative IT components. Table 2 shows the percentages of respondents who perceived various IT components as either “available and working”, ”available but not working”, or “not available”. Clearly, the IT components were considered mostly available and working except for telex, fax and projectors. Telex is really an obsolete technology in the Internet age, and the low availability of fax systems was probably due to their high running cost and the inadequate appreciation of such very fast means of transmitting documents in the usually slow bureaucratic culture of the agencies. The low availability of projectors (and also the large percentage of “don’t know/no response”) suggest that in-house presentations using such equipment is not a common or frequent practice of the agencies. On the other hand, old-fashioned and messy duplicating machines were relatively highly available probably due to their relatively lower unit cost of duplication than photocopiers, particularly for large quantity reproduction. 4.1.2. Accessibility of IT Numerous previous research have demonstrated that the accessibility of information systems is one of the key determinant of system use, and probably more than the information quality and other characteristics [20–22]. The accessibility of IT in the agencies were assessed in terms of two variables: frequency of Table 2 Availability and status of IT components in the ministries IT Component Typewriters Intercom Telephones Photocopiers Computers Duplicating machines Fax Telex O/H Projectors
Available and working 91.6 89.1 84.9 84.0 83.2 73.1 65.5 42.9 33.6
Available not working 1.7 5.9 2.5 8.4 7.6 5.0 5.0 16.0 9.2
Not available 5.0 1.7 10.1 3.4 5.0 10.9 19.3 21.0 25.2
Don’t know/ No response 1.7 3.3 2.5 4.2 4.2 11.0 10.2 20.1 32.0
Table values are the percentages of the 119 respondents who rated the availability status of the different IT components.
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Table 3 Frequency of problems with different IT components IT Component Photocopiers Telephones Computers Duplicating machines Intercom Typerwriters Fax Filing equipment O/H Projectors Telex
Often/Very often 59.7 44.7 34.4 33.6 26.0 25.2 16.0 14.3 13.4 12.6
Sometimes/ Rarely 22.7 26.1 40.3 24.4 51.3 44.5 19.3 38.7 10.1 16.8
Don’t know/ No response 17.6 30.3 25.2 42.0 22.7 30.3 64.7 47.1 76.5 70.6
Table values are the percentages of the 119 respondents who rated the frequency of problems.
problems with individual IT components, and barriers to using IT generally. Table 3 shows respondents’ rating of the frequency with which they encountered problems with each of the IT components in their agencies. Focusing on the “often/very often” column in the table, the components that pose problems most frequently are, in order of intensity, photocopiers (59.7% of respondents rated the problems as often/very often) and external telephones (44.7%). Computers and duplicating machines had about the same indices of frequency of problems (about a third of the respondents rated the problems as often/very often). On the other hand, respondents had lesser problems with fax, filing equipment, projectors and telex, probably because they are less available (as reported above) and/or used than the other components. Finally, one may note the high percentages for “no response/don’t know”, which suggest that many respondents might not have been using the IT components recently or frequently. 4.1.3. Need for, and use of, IT components Table 4 provides the percentages of respondents’ who rated their need and actual use of the different IT components as often/very often. Noting also that the majority of respondents were middle level personnel, it is observed that photocopiers, intercom and computers were rated highest in terms of frequency of need, but only photocopiers and intercom were rated very high in terms of actual use. On the other hand, fax, telex and projectors were needed and used least frequently. Focusing on the last column of the table, one would note that there appears to be substantial shortfalls between need for, and actual use of, fax, projectors, computers, typewriters and telephones, in that order. The shortfalls in respect of computers, typewriters and telephones should be of concern in view of the relatively high frequency with which they are needed. 4.2. Inter-agency analyses Of course, aggregative analyses as reported above usually conceal important inter-agency differences. So further analyses were undertaken to compare the availability, accessibility, need, use, and attitudes among the following four sub-categories of the agencies: core ministries, e.g., Ministry of Health (MIN); parastatals, e.g., National Electric Power Authority (PAR); government-controlled banks, e.g., Central Bank of Nigeria (BAN); and other agencies, e.g., Agricultural Development Project, Ethiope East Local
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M.A. Tiamiyu / Information technologies in Nigerian federal agencies Table 4 Percentage gap between need for, and use of, different IT components. (Need for and use of values are the percentages of the 119 respondents who rated need and use as often/very often) IT Components Fax O/H projectors Computers Typewriters Duplicating machines Telephones Telex Photocopiers Intercom
Need for 19.4 16.0 73.1 67.3 59.6 60.5 16.8 88.2 85.7
Actual use 10.9 10.1 50.5 47.0 42.8 44.5 13.5 73.9 73.9
% Gap between use and need 41 37 31 30 28 26 20 16 13
Table 5 Oneway ANOVA Comparing Ministries (MIN), Parastatals (PAR), Govt Banks (BAN), and Other Agencies (OTH) on different IT variables Dimension 1. Availability of IT components 2. Barriers of using IT 3. Frequency of problems with IT 4. Need for use of IT components 5. Actual use of IT components
N (n) 61 (8) 84 (7) 114 (13) 32 (4) 23 (3)
F ratio 5.1601 13.6609 3.3015 0.6203 6.4850
F prob. 0.0032 0.0000 0.0231 0.6078 0.0033
Scheffe test result BAN, PAR > OTH BAN < PAR, OTH, MIN; PAR < MIN n.s. n.s. BAN > MIN, PAR, OTH
N – number of cases (all agencies); (n) – number of cases for smallest (OTH) category. See the Appendix for explanation of the Oneway ANOVA procedure.
Government, and Kano State Ministry of Agriculture (OTH). The results of the oneway analysis of variance of the indices of availability, accessibility, etc. computed for respondents from different agencies are shown in Table 5. 4.2.1. Availability of IT As shown in line 1 of the table, banks and parastatals had significantly higher levels of availability of the representative IT components than only agencies in the “others” category. Hence, banks and parastatals did not have significantly higher availability indices than the core ministries, nor did the ministries have significantly higher indices than the agencies in the “others” category. This finding reflects the generally very low availability and exploitation of IT in the Nigerian banking system even as recently as 1997, with only a few relatively young commercial and merchant banks exploiting the technology to create niche customer services. 4.2.2. Accessibility of IT As noted previously, the accessibility of IT in the agencies were assessed in terms of two variables: barriers to using IT generally, and frequency of problems with individual IT components. As shown in lines 2 and 3 of Table 3, respondents from banks reported significantly lower barriers to using IT than ministries, parastatals and other agencies (F = 13.66, p = 0.0000 < α = 0.05). In turn, parastatals also reported lower barriers to using IT than the ministries. However, as shown in line 3, there were no significant differences between the different agencies on the frequency of problems with IT components
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(although F = 3.3015, p = 0.0231 < α = 0.05, significance was not confirmed by the Scheffe posthoc analysis). The difference in the results for “barriers to using IT” and “frequency of problems with IT components” is probably due to the difference in the level of aggregation of the two accessibility variables. Barriers to using IT generally which respondents rated included such variables as high costs of equipment, maintenance, and staff training; constant breakdown, improper handling, and misuse of equipment; etc. Respondents’ rating of these are likely to depend on the internal conditions of each agency, hence the significant inter-agency differences observed. On the other hand, problems with the use of specific IT components would likely depend on the specific problems associated with each component in the Nigerian environment common to all the agencies, hence the absence of clear cut inter-agency differences. 4.2.3. IT need and use As reported in Table 5, there were no significant differences between respondents from the four categories of agencies on need for IT (line 4). This means that all the respondents (who were mostly middlelevel managers) indicated about the same level of need and appreciation of IT in their work, irrespective of type of agency. By contrast, and not surprisingly in view of earlier findings on the availability and accessibility of IT, respondents from banks reported significantly higher level of actual use of IT components in their work than those from ministries, parastatals and other agencies (line 5). 4.3. Inter-departmental analyses Since the 1988 Civil Service Reforms in Nigeria, government agencies were structured into four main functional departments: Administration/Personnel; Finance and Supply; Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS); and Operations/Services. So we sought to compare the relative availability of various IT components in the four departments across agencies towards gauging the optimality of the distribution of the components relative to the nature of information processing in the departments. Table 6 shows the results of the One-way analyses of the data. (Note however that although PRS embodies the computing units in the agencies, we have nevertheless separated respondents in “computer services” units from respondents in other units of PRS in our analyses.) Computers were more available in the Computer Services units than in the Administration/personnel units, but not significantly more than in the information processing-intensive PRS and Finance/Supplies, Table 6 Oneway ANOVA comparing Administration/Personnel (ADM), Finance & Supplies (FIN), Operations/Services (OPE), Planning Research & Statistics (PRS); and Computer services (COM) departments on availability of IT components IT Component 1. Computers 2. Telephone 3. Intercom 4. Fax 5. Photocopiers 6. Duplicating machines 7. O/H Projectors 8. Typewriters
N (n) 108 (11) 108 (10) 108 (11) 94 (9) 106 (9) 98 (7) 87 (8) 111 (11)
F ratio 4.0151 3.2483 0.9735 0.5408 1.9994 1.0738 0.8896 4.2976
F prob. 0.0046 0.0149 0.4254 0.7061 0.1003 0.3738 0.4740 0.0029
Scheffe test result COM > ADM FIN > ADM n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. PRS > ADM OPE > ADM
N – number of cases (all agencies); (n) – number of cases for smallest (COM) category. See the Appendix for explanation of the Oneway ANOVA procedure.
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and also not more than in the Operations/Services departments. Secondly, Finance/Supplies had a higher availability of telephones than Administration/Personnel (line 2), and both PRS and Operations/Services also had higher availability of typewriters than Administration/Personnel (line 8). There were no significant differences among the departments in the level of availability of intercom, photocopiers, duplicating machines or overhead projectors. These findings show that some of the IT components were concentrated in Computer Services, PRS, Finance/Supplies and Operations/Services departments, either because the departments perform large volume data processing (Computer Services), or produce voluminous statistical and research reports (PRS), or engage in high frequency transactions or correspondence with the external environment (Finance/Supplies and Operations/Services). Conversely, the IT components are relatively less available in the Administration/Personnel units which are basically inward-looking, and whose operations revolve around manual and paper-based information creation, storage and transfer systems. Hence, our findings suggest a generally optimal distribution of IT components in line with the information activities of the different departments.
5. Summary and conclusion This has been a preliminary survey of the availability, accessibility, need and use of both traditional and modern information technology components in Nigerian public agencies. Our intention had been to gain broad insight into general patterns and trends in the agencies as a stepping stone to more detailed future investigations. Nevertheless, the study unearthed some important findings. As one would expect, government-owned banks had higher availability and accessibility of various IT components than ministries and parastatals. But the gap was not as large as one would have expected in view of differences in the resources and business environments of the banks versus the ministries and parastatals. Moreover, although parastatals were often established to facilitate more effective and efficient service provision to the public than would have been possible in red-tape core ministries, they had about the same level of availability and accessibility of IT as the ministries, suggesting that they were not ahead of the ministries in exploiting the productivity gains associated with modern information technologies. Secondly, although the distribution of most of the representative IT components was uniform across functional departments in the agencies, there appears to be inadequate levels of availability, accessibility and/or exploitation of modern IT components in the agencies because of the substantial gaps between perception of need and actual opportunity to use some of the IT components in the agencies. Based on data from the study and the author’s field experiences in public agencies, it could be said that despite the DPRS innovations of the 1988 Civil Service Reforms, and due both to lack of resources and inadequate appreciation or eagerness for the potential productivity gains of modern information technologies, most Nigerian government agencies were, at the time of the study, in Nolan’s initiation, or at best, early contagion stages of computerization. Only very few of them had progressed to the networked computers and integrated database systems of the integration stages of computerization, let alone the strategy-oriented repositioning stages. As noted earlier, networked computer systems and Internet access in government agencies were very limited in 1997 due to inadequate availability of, and access to, computers and telephones within the public sector, absence of local internet service providers outside the commercial city of Lagos, and the usual tight control and monopoly of the one or two direct telephone lines available to most government agencies by their top personnel, and almost exclusively for voice communication.
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Appendix: Brief on the Oneway Analysis of Variance statistical procedure The One-way Analysis of Variance (Oneway ANOVA for short) is a procedure for finding out statistically if the means of the data obtained from the different sub-groups of respondents in a survey (say, ministries, parastatals, etc.) should be considered as about equal or as significantly different from one another. Although the calculated means for the different sub-groups might not be equal, we often want to be sure that the observed differences are really statistically significant by taking into account such things as the absolute sizes of the differences in the means, the numbers of respondents in each sub-group, and the way the data varies among respondents in the same, and in different sub-groups. The Oneway ANOVA procedure takes these factors into account. Significant differences between the sub-groups being compared is determined on the basis of the value of a calculated statistic called the F ratio which ranges from 0 upwards, or by the value of a probability called the F probability which ranges between 0 and 1 inclusive. Significant differences among the subgroups is indicated by either high values of the F ratio (usually greater than 2), or alternatively, by very low values of F probability (usually less than 0.05). In Table 5, for instance, data provided by sub-groups of respondents in Ministries (MIN), Parastatals (PAR), Government-owned banks (BAN), and other agencies (OTH) on their perceptions of “Availability of IT components”, “Barriers to using IT”, etc. were compared using the Oneway ANOVA procedure. The F ratio calculated for “Availability of IT components” is 5.1601, and the F probability is very low (0.0032), both indicating that significant differences existed among the sub-groups in perceptions of availability of IT components. The specific sub-groups whose perceptions were significantly different are shown in the last column. Conversely, on the basis of the relatively low F ratio (0.6203), or the high F probability (0.6078) calculated in respect of perceptions of “Need for use of IT components”, the conclusion is that there were no significant differences (n.s.) among the sub-groups on that variable.
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About the author Muta Adisa Tiamiyu is Senior Lecturer and Acting Director of the Africa Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS), University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where he specializes in Management Information Systems, economics of information, and ICTs in the public sector. He obtained his master’s degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan, and a Ph.D in Information Science from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He had worked previously in the civil service of Kwara State, Nigeria.
