The Unintended Consequences of ICT in Sub-Saharan Africa

Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he\u27s 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck. Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria\u27s largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives. Call him a “Yahoo Yahoo Millionaire. Akin buys things online - laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs - using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.). Akin\u27s main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams. And he\u27s not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a chairman who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin\u27s chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin\u27s pocket. (Quoted from http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic- 37929.0.html)

The Impact of Instructors\u27 Cultural Orientation on Online Course Delivery

This dissertation aims to investigate the ways online instructors’ cultural orientation impact online course delivery. Much of the research in this area has involved advocacy for eLearning from a techno-centric perspective. Prior research has not looked at cultural issues affecting eLearning implementation and how those issues affect course delivery and student interaction. Most eLearning research has been conducted in America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa, while Africa has fallen behind. Illuminated by Hofstede’s theory on culture illuminated, the three research questions that motivated this study were: In what ways will instructors’ cultural orientation impact online course delivery through power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, instructor/student interaction, and students’ holistic experiences? What perceptions do faculty have about cultural differences that exist between them and students? What issues have faculty experienced in their online teaching concerning cultural differences? The study used a two-phase explanatory sequential mixed methods design. The study also used a multi-level sampling technique was used, and 1430 online students from four Sub- Saharan Africa online institutions completed the survey. A follow-up one-on-one interview was conducted with nine online instructors from the same institutions as the students. Instructors were from three different cultural orientations. The study used SPSS to run the statistical analysis with quantitative data, while content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Results showed that students enjoyed positive holistic experiences; however, results also showed that there were differences across the three categories of participating instructors. Some of the cultural issues that instructors perceived due to cultural differences were language barriers, intentionality, technology acceptance, cultural sensitivity, multiple perspectives, and intercultural competencies

The effect of electricity reliability on the sustainability of SMEs in Fako Division of Cameroon

Purpose: To investigate the effects of the reliability of electricity supply on the sustainability of SMEs in Cameroon. Research Methodology: This study investigates the effects of the reliability of electricity supply on the sustainability of SMEs in Cameroon. The study used a quantitative approach with the philosophical underpinnings of objectivist ontology and positivist epistemology. Primary data were obtained through closed-ended questionnaires that were responded to by 54 purposively sampled participants in the Fako division. The data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using SPSS 23 and SPSS Amos 24 software. Results: The study revealed that sporadic electricity supply interruptions, chronic electricity supply interruptions, and momentary electricity supply interruptions have no significant positive impact on the sustainability of SMEs in the Fako Division of the Southwest Region of Cameroon. Limitations: This study had a limitation in methodology, as it used a quantitative approach only. A better understanding of this study’s phenomenon can be achieved by adopting a mixed research method, where the qualitative aspect will provide a deeper understanding of the effects of other variables that affect  SME sustainability. Contribution: Based on the results of this study, business managers will come to the understanding that the sustainability of their businesses is not dependent on the reliability of the electricity supply. This means that other variables responsible for the sustainability of businesses can be studied qualitatively

Challenges faced by Software SMEs in Uganda

Despite the numerous benefits of Requirements Engineering Process Improvement, many Ugandan software developing companies seem not to properly conduct it. This has implications on the quality of software being produced by these organizations. Moreover, little research has been conducted to establish the challenges being faced by the Small and Medium Enterprises that produce software in Uganda. This study examines the challenges of requirement

TeleEducation Initiatives for Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of the African Virtual University in Kenya

A journal article by Dr. Clive Tsuma Katiba, an adjunct faculty at USIU-A