Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Employment Generation in Rural Areas in Kogi State

The rising rate of unemployment in Nigeria in general and Kogi State in particular, calls for modern day innovations that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers. In this study, the impact of access to, ownership and utilization of ICT on employment generation in rural areas in Kogi State was investigated. The study made use of the Shapiro-Stiglitz model of employment. Primary data were collected through household survey using structured questionnaire. The structured questionnaire was validated in a departmental seminar where the proposal and draft of the instrument were presented. Multi-stage sampling method was adopted to select 10 households each from 120 rural communities that were earlier randomly selected from the 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the State. This makes a total sample of 1,200 households used in the survey. Three models of regression were estimated in the study using binary choice (LOGIT) technique. The findings of the study were that households’ utilization of ICT has had positive and significant impact on employment generation in Kogi State at 5 percent significance level. However, households’ access and ownership of ICT did not have statistically significant impact on employment generation in rural areas of Kogi State. The study concluded that the utilization of ICT has positively impacted the people in terms of employment generation in the rural areas of Kogi State. The study recommended that Kogi State government, Non-Governmental Organizations and individual philanthropists should establish more ICT training centres and Community Internet Service Centres (CISC) in rural areas. Also, rural dwellers in Kogi State should make themselves available for ICT training.