FACTORS IMPEDING ACCESS AND UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN NIGERIAN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education lends itself to students-centred teaching pedagogy. This phenomenon and the need for globalization and collaboration are further entrenching the need for ICT in education. To this end, Teachers are expected to exhibit high usage of ICT in their teaching and research, but unfortunately this is not exactly the case in Nigeria just like it is in many other developing countries. The crux of this study therefore was to identify the factors that impede access and utilization of ICT in Nigerian Higher Education Institutions. Two hundred and sixty-nine (269) lecturers in twenty two (22) tertiary institutions across the six geopolitical zone of Nigeria participated in the study. Four research questions were formulated. Structured questionnaire was used to seek experts' opinions. The data collected were analyzed using percentages. Items that carried the highest percentage were considered the consensus of the respondents. The findings revealed factors impeding successful access and utilization of ICT in the higher education of Nigeria to include among others: social, economic, political, technical, human and electricity (power) factors. Based on the findings recommendations were made that: Higher Education Institutions should be connected to dedicated electricity power lines for guaranteed supply of electricity; the National Research and Education Network should be executed as dedicated Network and linked to Nigerian Universities Broadband Network for Internet access; adequately qualified staff should be engaged in the ICT units, they should be well remunerated and encouraged so that they would provide required technical support; ICT funding policies should be well concretized and enforced.