16-10-2012, 03:58 PM
DIGITAL DIVIDE, A MODEL FOR INTRODUCING TECHNOLOGY IN RURAL AREAS IN NIGERIA.
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INTRODUCTION
Digital divide refers to any inequalities between groups, broadly construed in terms of access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies. It is a social issue referring to the differing amount of information between those who have access to the internet (especially broadband access) and those who do not have access. It is a geographic division of great disparities in opportunity to access the internet and information, this term concerns with education, business and economic differences between developed and developing countries.
Apparently, the highly used of computer is in the developed countries such as North America, Western Europe, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. Internet is the main disparity or gap found among developed and undeveloped countries, which it is being used to advance the country development on a local and global scale. The term became very popular among concerned parties, such as scholars, policy makers, and advocacy groups in the late 1990s.
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Nigeria, a country on the West Coast of Africa, with an estimated population of 170,123,740 (Common Country Assessment, 2012), is the most populous nation in sub-Saharan Africa. It occupies a landmass of about 923 768 square kilometres, and is generally known to have over 274 ethnic groups in the Federation. The Government’s desire to move closer to the people has
Progressively led to the division of the three major regions into 36 states grouped under six geopolitical zones with a total of 774 local government areas (LGAs). A breakdown of the statistics available on Nigeria shows the following: More than 55% of the people are female; the poverty rate is about 67, 8%, the majority of the people (70%) live in the rural areas, and over sixty per cent of the young (0-15) are under the age of 15. These statistics indicate that the majority of Nigerians fits the main focus of the Global Forum, which is to reach those who are yet to be reached (the class of the poor, the illiterate, women, the marginalized, and those living in remote areas) through one form of education or the other (whether formal or informal education).
In particular, women and minority communities, such as nomads, fishermen, and unemployed youths are examples of these hitherto neglected communities in Nigeria Jegede (2002).
In terms of its economy, Jegede (2002) points out that about 90 per cent of Nigeria's annual revenue comes from petroleum – it exports two million barrels of oil a day – and that it ranks as the country with the seventh largest oil reserves in the world. The country's less-than-desirable economic growth makes it almost impossible to cope with the resources needed by the huge and fast-growing population to develop the country and upgrade the welfare of ordinary persons, especially in the rural areas. Jegede (2002) mentions that only five per cent of the Nigerian population can access online Internet-based material. This group lives in the urban areas and are the people described by Herselman (2002) as the "Resource Advantageous (RA)". The majority of the population – about 70 per cent – live in the rural areas, and this group, according to Jegede (2002), has no access to telephone, facsimile, computer or Internet-based services.
Herselman (2002) points out that this group of people has fewer opportunities to take part in our new information-based economy, in which more and more jobs and services are related to computers.
The Federal Government of Nigeria realized that the country was lagging behind in the race to become a digital society, and saw the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) to empower people – particularly, people with disabilities, women, youth and rural communities. Therefore, it declared Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) a national priority, in the year 2001 Bello (2003).
The success of ICT projects in rural communities, according to Disraeli (2001), depends on sustainability and the deployment of suitable infrastructure. In other words, an ICT-related project should consider local needs and local skilled staff, or the adequate training and development of the local people. If such projects still depend on foreign staff and skills, then it is not a case of the transfer of technology but of the "dumping" of technology that is often outdated. This results in a casual relationship between technology “dumping” and technology transfer. One finds that the “dumped” technology that is outdated is often provided to rural communities without the ability for community to use it. People in the community are not trained to use the technology or the hardware and software are so outdated that it cannot be applied to the benefit of the community (schools or businesses). One the other hand communities are then forced to use the outdated technology without any success. Jacobs mentioned one of the six serious challenges in ICT development is reconciling the tension between technology push and local development needs (2003).
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
We are in a developing world, things changes with time and the more advanced we go the more things get different. Information and Communication technology is a life on its own, it makes life go softly with ease, things produced with a month can be made possible within a day, this is made possible with the aid of fast moving internet access and other peripherals attached to it. There are so many dangers that may be encountered if nothing is done towards introducing ICT in rural areas.