INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
When oil was discovered in Nigeria, the country had very little human resources to manage and operate a sizeable modern petroleum sector. The Foreign Oil Companies and the Government played major roles in establishing the pre¬requisites for the establishment of linkages and minor change capabilities especially in developing human resources for the petroleum industry. At the onset, the oil companies supported the establishment of departments and appropriate curricula for the training of Nigerians on oil related technological, science and engineering disciplines in Nigerian universities. Scholarships were awarded in significant numbers for overseas study. Assistance was given for relevant programmes for training in technical schools. This was also extended to in-house training programmes within the oil companies. The government's effort to alleviate the shortage of technicians led to the creation of Industrial Training Fund (1TF) to promote and encourage the acquisitions of skills in the industry. Since the creation of 1TF, encouragement was given to broad industrial training efforts to company manpower plans.
Against this backdrop, the researcher considered it necessary to investigate the diffusion and adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries. The advent of Information and Communication Technologies had a huge impact on the way organizations of all types and users did their work (Kuuti, 1996:177-178). What has become known as the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) revolution has improved efficiency and effectiveness in most sectors of the economy (OECD, 2002:30). By allowing organizations to create and analyze important new information, it changed the way major decisions were made (Rochelean, 1999:23-36). In both business and government, the growth of the internet and its related software has spawned new ways of conducting business developments in ICTs and has changed the way economic activities were organized. The impact could be traced in two ways. First, how the ICTs industry changed during the last few years and second, how ICTs have impacted on other economic activities such as manufacturing and services.
The beginning of the ICTs industry is traced to the birth of the internet in the late 1960s and the appearance of the Personal Computer (PC) in the 1970s (Adubifa, 1990: 24). Its development as currently understood actually picked up momentum in the early 1990s. Since then, ICTs have integrated computing, communications and graphics through digitalization. It thrived on websites with the use of broad-band optical fiber lines. It has already made headway into the wireless mode and are becoming more and more personalized. ICTs are a general purpose technology and have wide applicability in various manufacturing and services sectors. It has the potential to affect virtually all sectors of the economy by imbuing greater information and development content in products and processes (Saidam, 2003:13). More importantly, it has spawned new products and made existing products more versatile. The development of lCTs has emerged to become another factor dividing the developed and the developing countries. ICTs have transformed the world, its potential for reducing poverty and fostering growth has increased rapidly.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries are unique in Nigerian oil industry. Ogudu (1997:10) emphasizes that petroleum products have played vital role in the Nigerian economy and generated over 90 percent of Nigeria's Foreign exchange earnings and 80 percent of federal government revenue. The NNPC and its subsidiaries have a long and chequered history, starting with mineralogical studies in 1903 by the Mineral Survey Company. In 1937, the forerunners of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Shell D'Avey came to Nigeria and thereafter other oil firms followed. To ascertain the specialized information needs of the NNPC and its subsidiaries, maximum use of information and Communication Technologies became unavoidable.
It is known fact that Information and Communication Technologies have revolutionized the Information handling capabilities, especially in Information centers throughout the world, which resulted to massive investment in research aimed at making computer and telecommunication networks more efficient to cope with the increasing demands. All over the world, the development of science and technology has been recognized as a necessary condition for economic growth and social progress. In most developing countries, science and technology indicators have shown lower values than in other parts of developed countries (Wangwe, 2000:32). The relevance of coming to terms with the importance of science and technology at Nigeria's development cannot be overemphasized. Adubifa (1990:24-26) makes the point when he defined technology policy as a framework consciously put in place for the purpose of acquiring and utilizing scientific and technological knowledge in order to achieve national development objectives. The effective performance of this framework, according to Dahlman (1989: 13-15) requires enormous amount of financial, human and organizational or institutional capability. To develop these capabilities, a nation need to have the appropriate policy, build the necessary institutions and structures, which should be sustainable.
David (1992:215-216) explains the rationale for institutional networking for technological capacity building. In his own view, co-operation ought to exist between esoteric research for the purpose of expanding the frontiers of knowledge and research directed towards the production of goods and services. The trend towards institutional networking for the pursuit of technological knowledge has been furthered by the greater availability of standardized procedures embodied in new instruments for generating and analyzing data, as well as by the availability of high speed digital communication networks for linking spatially separated researchers (Mansell and Weh 1998:18-19). It is important to note that appropriate information technology and political stability are vital for the growth and vitality of any nation's economy. The presence of appropriate technology contributes to the operations of organizations while the lack of it leads to poor performance of organizations. The lack of technology constrains the implementation of corporate strategies and policies.
In the eyes of many during long years that passed, the thought of Information and Communication Technologies in most part of the Nigerian economy was confined to traditional computer services and computer laboratories providing on most occasions, random and computer training that was not market based. For many, the establishment of such laboratories was the closest one got to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially in the Non-Government Organization (NGO) sector. These days the very people who shared the traditional thoughts are thinking differently. Most are now convinced that ICTs without results are waste of time. Technology diffusion involves the dissemination of technical information and know-how and the subsequent adoption of new technologies and techniques by users (Tassey, 1992: 46-47). It focuses on reaching the entire society in accordance with its needs or in accordance with what technology could do to facilitate better results for the different sectors, resulting in collective economic growth and prosperity. The thoughts of Information and Communication Technologies diffusion were designed to lead to an elimination of the idea that ICTs are tools of the privileged and the favoured. A slogan such as "ICTs for all” is becoming a reality. Farmers, carpenters, doctors, engineers, managers and the society at large are required to make use of ICTs for their domestic and professional needs. A human development report (UNDP, 2003:65-67) identifies the needs to make available the benefits of new technologies, especially Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as one of the global goals to alleviate poverty.
| Project details | Contents |
|---|---|
| Number of Pages | 184 pages |
| Chapter one | Introduction |
| Chapter two | Literature review |
| Chapter three | methodology |
| Chapter four | Data analysis |
| Chapter five | Summary,discussion & recommendations |
| Reference | Reference |
| Questionnaire | Questionnaire |
| Appendix | Appendix |
| Chapter summary | 1 to 5 chapters |
| Available document | PDF and MS-word format |
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