The Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Improving Business Competitiveness in Ghana

The role information and communication technology (ICT) plays in increasing the competitiveness of business cannot be undermined since it enables most organizations to increase productivity and profitability. However, it has been realized that although ICT is employed in the various activities of the banks, most of them are implementing business strategies that are not enabling them to gain competitive advantage over their competitors in the banking industry and therefore are not making the desire profits. Objectives were set to identify the role of information and communication technology in business operations in New Juabeng municipality, to determine stakeholders views on the use of information and communication technology in business operations New Juabeng Municipality, to identify how banks in New Juabeng Municipality use information communication technology to gain competitive advantage and to identify how banks in new Juabeng municipality use business strategies to gain competitive advantage. The case study research design was employed in this study. The study adopted questionnaire as the main instrument to gather data and information for the study. The hypothesis tested indicated a significance level at 0.05 showing that ICT has improved the competitive position of businesses and also contributed to the success of business in New Juabeng municipality. Out of 150 copies of questionnaire distributed, 140 copies were retrieved completely filled. This represented 93 % of the valid data. With the help of SPSS the data and information was quantitatively analyze in the form of tables, bar charts and pie charts. The study found out among others that, business organizations are using information and communication technology (ICT) in their business operations and transactions. ICT infrastructures can be improved by training staff members and investing in technology and also ICT is helping business operation and making customers feel satisfy with it (ICT) operations and has changes the scope of modern marketing environment in recent times as well as making internet business operations (ICT) more convenient and effective than direct business operations. The study recommended among others that, ICT should be properly installed to give adequate information needed to do transactions, regular maintenance of ICT systems should be put in place to maintain free flow of information and easy transactions, organizations using ICT in their operations must and business strategies in their business operation to gain competitive advantage using Ansoff matrix to access product on two dimensions.