Affiliations: Africa Regional Centre for Information Science,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: In the last ten years, banks in developed countries have been
investing more and more in information technology (IT) as a means to reduce
costs and improve operational efficiency. An investigation of the application
of IT in Nigerian banks was carried out in order to determine the expectations
and success of IT implementations in the sector. The data were generated from a
survey of randomly selected branches of 56 banks in Lagos, the commercial
capital of Nigeria. Almost all the banks had an IT policy, the main thrusts of
which where to achieve full application of IT, to be able to meet
organisational goals, to secure competitive advantage, and to be up to date.
Only 54.6% of them actually achieved some measure of successful
implementations. The expected benefits of investment in IT were realised in
only a relatively few number of banks. The consequence was that less than 40%
of the banks were poised to maximise the benefits of IT through major
investments, especially in the areas of online access and transactions,
electronic commerce, and electronic publishing. It is estimated that at least
60% of the branches of these banks are spending less than $150,000 annually
on IT. An upsurge of investment is, however, expected, first by the banks that
style themselves as progressive and have already made some success in IT
implementations, and later by the other banks.