Challenges Facing Adoption and Usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Small and Medium Scale Industries (SMI) in Nnewi, South East Nigeria

This paper investigates the challenges facing the ICT automation (adoption and usage) among Small and Medium Scale Industries (SMIs) in the manufacturing and logistics sectors in South East Nigeria. The paper identifies about seven key ICT components or tools that are required to ensure successful industrial automation. The researcher visited and sampled about 25 manufacturing and logistics firms based in Nnewi Anambra State to determine their level of ICT adoption and usage of the major ICT automation components or tools. Questionnaires and structured interview were employed as data collection instruments to reach some of the targeted firms. Twenty-five firms out of 33 filled and returned the questionnaires distributed to them. The paper discovered that the major challenges facing ICT adoption and usage in South East Nigeria are Epileptic and unreliable power supply, high cost of internet bandwidth and network unavailability, lack of corporate interest for ICT automation and usage, lack of budget for ICT acquisition, lack of skilled manpower to drive ICT automation and usage, lack of quality training on technical manpower and lack of good existing ICT models to adopt or copy by upstart firms. The paper concludes by suggesting various solutions to these identified challenges.