Business-to-consumer e-commerce in Nigeria: Prospects and challenges

The growth of Internet usage in Nigeria continues to increase, recording over 90% growth rate between 2000 and 2008. While businesses in Nigeria are reported to have online access with opportunity for ecommercial activities, customers in the country however access business websites only to source for information but make purchases the traditional way. This paper aims at assessing the prospects and challenges of Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce implementation in Nigeria from the consumers’ perspective. Survey research was adopted for this study. Research hypotheses were formulated and questionnaire designed and administered randomly to 900 respondents. Collected data was used to evaluate the acceptance of B2C e-commerce using the extended technology acceptance model (TAM). The extended TAM combines task-technology fit, relationship related construct: trust and risk, and the two TAM constructs to determine factors influencing consumer acceptance of B2C e-commerce in Nigeria. Findings revealed that there are significant relationships between the model variables. Tasktechnology fit and perceived usefulness have significant relationships with intentions to use, having a correlation coefficient of 0.2623 and 0.2002 respectively. Similarly, the interrelationship among trust, perceived risk, and behavioral intention are significant. The effect of risk on trust was statistically showing that risk is a predictor of trust. Risk has a high significant on trust and trust in turn has low significant effect on behavioral intention. Adding TTF and its relationships to the TAM also fit the data. The relationship between task-technology fit, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and intention are significant

The State of e-Banking Implementation in Nigeria: A Post-Consolidation Review

The most widely used e-Banking instrument in �igeria is e-Payment, particularly the automatic teller machine (ATM) card. However, with the adoption of e-Banking by all the banks in �igeria, the volume of cash in circulation has continued to increase pre-and-post bank recapitalization/consolidation exercise. Furthermore, some of the 25 banks that survived the exercise were found lately to have depleted their capital base and have lost credibility before the consumers, e-Banking implementation notwithstanding. Therefore, in this paper, we review the state of e-Banking implementation in �igeria and evaluate the influence of trust on the adoption of e-Payment using an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Similarly, we investigate organizational reputation, perceived risk and perceived trust in the management of banks as a factor for enhancing customer loyalty. The findings in this work reveal that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are not only antecedent to ebanking acceptance, they are also factors to retain customers to the use of e-banking system such as organizational reputation, perceived risk and trust

The association between area level socio-economic position and oral health-related quality of life in the South African adult population

Objective: To investigate the association between arealevel socio-economic position (SEP) and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Methods: Data collected from a nationally representative sample of the South African population ?16 years old (n=3,003) included demographics, individual-level SEP measures and self-reported oral health status. OHRQoL was measured using the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14). The General Household Survey (n=25,653 households) and Quarterly Labour Force Surveys (n~30,000 households/ quarter) were used to determine area-level SEP. Data analysis included a random-effect negative binomial regression model and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis. Results: Area-level deprivation was associated with more negative oral impacts, independent of an individual's SEP. Other significant predictors of oral impacts included having experienced oral pain and reporting previous dental visits. Area differences in dental attendance contributed the most (37.5%) to the observed gap in OHRQoL, explained by differences in area-level SEP, whereas individual-level SEP contributed the least (18.8%). In the more affluent areas, satisfaction with life in general and individuals' SEP were significantly positively associated with OHRQoL.DHE

Improving the Dependability of Destination Recommendations using Information on Social Aspects

Prior knowledge of the social aspects of prospective destinations can be very influential in making travel destination decisions, especially in instances where social concerns do exist about specific destinations. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an ontology-enabled Hybrid Destination Recommender System (HDRS) that leverages an ontological description of five specific social attributes of major Nigerian cities, and hybrid architecture of content-based and case-based filtering techniques to generate personalised top-n destination recommendations. An empirical usability test was conducted on the system, which revealed that the dependability of recommendations from Destination Recommender Systems (DRS) could be improved if the semantic representation of social attributes information of destinations is made a factor in the destination recommendation process.Content-based filtering; Recommender Systems; Ontology; Social Attributes, Destination recommendation

Determinants of fast food consumption in Kampala, Uganda

Consumption of fast-food in Uganda is becoming an increasingly importantcomponent of the food market as more of the working class choose to dine out rather than prepare meals at home. Despite the importance of the fast-food sector, limited attempts have been made to study the consumption and expenditure behaviour of consumers of fast-food in Uganda. The main objective of this study was to assess characteristics influencing the consumption of fast-food in Kampala district. Specifically, the objectives of the study were: to assess the factors influencing theprobability of consuming fast-food; and to determine the level of expenditure on fastfood. Primary data on socio-economic characteristics were collected from a sample of 300 respondents using a multi-stage sampling procedure. The study revealed that majority (90%) of the respondents consumed fast-food. The consumption of fast-foodwas most motivated by their taste and convenience. Results from the Heckman model show that household size, education level and distance from work-place to restaurant negatively influenced the probability of fast-food consumption and level of expenditure on fast-food while disposable monthly income had a positive effect on the probability of consumption and level of expenditure on fast-food. The high demandfor fast-food is seen as an easy solution to consumers’ busy schedules and limited meal preparation time. As changing tastes and need for convenience become the goal of households, consumption of fast-food will be expected to rise especially in urban areas. This increase in fast-food consumption, coupled with rising population and urbanization in Uganda offers new market opportunities for agribusiness firms to exploit the growing demand by investing in the fast-food sector and producingsufficiently for this market. In addition, fast-food establishments should ensure proximity of their products and services to the consumers as convenience greatly influences fast-food consumption. Future research should include identification of sources of agricultural products used by fast-food outlets to provide information about the contribution of the fast-food sector to agricultural marketing and farmers’ livelihoods in Uganda

Microbial and Physicochemical Qualities of River Owena Sediments

Microbial quality, physicochemical parameters and heavy metals determination of sediment samples from River Owena, Oriade local government area, Owena, Nigeria. For period of dry and wet seasons. The pH of the sediment samples ranged from 6.44 to 8.00±0.01, organic matter ranged from 17.15 to 35.31%; water holding capacity ranged from 0.323 to 1.779±0.01 ml/g; composition of sand: clay: silt were 75:12:13 %, 33:17:50 %, 62:18:20 % and 50:20:30 %; 82:2:16 %, 48:22:30 %, 32:25:43 % and 43:27:30 % wet and dry seasons respectively indicated more of loamy sand, clay loam, silt clay and loam. Mean concentrations of heavy metals measured in the sediment samples included iron, zinc, manganese, lead, chromium, cadmium, nickel and copper, iron had highest values of 1.89 to 4.1±0.01 mg/kg and cadmium lowest values of 0.01 to 0.12±0.01 mg/kg. A total of fifteen bacterial species were isolated from River Owena sediments, which included Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Salmonella enteritidis, Bacillus subtilis, Serratia marcescens, Shigella sonnei, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Micrococcus varians, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Erwinia amylovora. A total of ten fungal species were isolated, which included Aspergillus Niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium chrysogenum, Cladosporium herbarum, Mucor mucedo, Mucor plumbeus, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizopus stolonifer and Rhizopus oryzae. The total bacterial count of the sediment ranged from 4.1 x103 to 3.02 x 103 cfu/g while the total fungal count of the sediment ranged from 4 x 103 to 7.6 x 103 cfu/g. However, the pollution level due to the presence of some pathogenic microorganisms which are of public health significance, but it could be improved upon with appropriate treatment and sanitation

A FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE HEALTH CARE DELIVERY IN DEVELOPING NATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA

Health systems in developing nation especially low and low-middle income countries is characterised with numerous challenges which ranges from inefficient health information system, poor health delivery system, mortality and morbidity rate of disease and ailments, inadequate health manpower etc. The growth of ICT especially in developing nations has been on the increase bringing about a lot of invention amongst which mobile technology is one. Mobile technology as a significant ICT tool has the ability of penetrating into both the urban and rural areas and bringing about disruptive changes and development. The impact of technology has being seen in health system to bring across innovative inventions like telemedicine, telehealth, e- health, m-health and has provided solutions to diverse health challenges. This paper presents a mobile health (m-health) framework for providing promising sustainable healthcare services and health related information in developing countries using supporting technologies & tools support based on availability, ease to access, and affordability

A Review of Open & Distance Education and Human Development in Nigeria

Distance Education have a lot of potential gains – such as meeting the education needs of the teeming population of qualified students who could not gain admission to tertiary institution; some of these are indigent students who could hardly afford formal tertiary education and so need to work and learn simultaneously. More so, the higher institutions in Nigeria are hardly able to absorb 30% of applicants on a yearly basis. With population increase, the situation is becoming aggravated with each passing year. The current state of the study centres needs urgent attention. This study, therefore, focused on empirically ascertaining the state of Open and Distance Education (ODE) in Nigeria and strives to evolve a pragmatic solution to the challenge of ODE in Africa. The research designs adopted for the first phase of this study is the case study design. The second phase of the study is devoted to test-running the proposed Information and Computer Technology (ICT) based solution. From findings in this study, the speculation that there are pertinent challenges in the current ODE practices in Nigeria has been confirmed. Thus, providing information required for improved platform for ODE implementation in Covenant University and hence the proposed recommendations