Socio-economic Factors and Adoption of ICT among staff members of Colleges of Education in Northwest zone of Nigeria

This research is financed by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Nigeria Abstract This study examined the impact of socio-economic characteristics on ICT adoption by staff members in the fourteen (14) colleges of education located in northwest geo-political zone of Nigeria. A cross-sectional form of descriptive survey design was adopted. Though the population of this study was 15,219, comprising 5,845 and 9,374 academic and non-academic staff respectively a sample of 610 was used. A combination of simple random and stratified random sampling techniques was used to select the sample and data was collected through a self-completion structured questionnaire. Multiple linear regression model was used to test the main alternate hypothesis of the study at 95 per cent confidence level. Data analysis revealed that socio-economic variables have significant influence on IT adoption. Specifically, each of income, level of education, access to technology, age, gender and ownership of technology are predictors of level of ICT adoption. However, variables such as place of training, time of training, educational discipline and work experience do not have significant influence on the level of IT adoption. Hence, it was recommended that institutional heads should consider sales, training and maintenance agreement with hardware producers and software developers for the benefits of staff members. Employees should be encouraged to have access to expertise in data processing, graphics and publishing packages. Keywords: Adoption, Diffusion, Innovations, socio-economic characteristics, Information Technology, educational institutions, staff members DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-2-0