The critical success factors of information and communication technology usage in Nigeria’s commercial banks

Abstract: The rapidly changing business environments in which organizations operate have brought challenges that organizations must meet up with in other to remain competitive. According to Adewoye (2007), these environments in which banks and other organizations operate are competitive, complex and consist of changing operational conditions. The revolution in information and communication technology is the drive of present day economy and corporate strategies of organizations; it is responsible for the speedy changes in the mode of operations that organizations adopt.Considering Nigeria’s banking sector, the use of information and communication technology is relatively new. As at 1998 one bank in Nigeria had an automated teller machine (Agboola, 2006). On realizing the benefits of using ICTs in rendering of banking services, Nigeria commercial banks now deploy and use different ICT facilities in their various banking services.In this study an attempt is made to find out from the various customers of Nigeria’s banks included in this study what their most used and prefered ICT facility of their banks is. An attempt is also made to find out if bank customers most used and prefered ICT facility differs based on gender consideration and lastly, this study also tries to find out what the worst factors are that tend to limit customer usage of their banks’ICTs.To be able to answer these questions, a theoretical framework of CFS and contingency theory are used. The data received from the survey are analyzed by using SPSS. The objective of this study is to identify, describe, explain and explore the different CFS of ICT application in banks to rendering quality services to customers in the studied commercial banks in Nigeria. The findings are that: The individual customers of the studied banks prefer to make use of their banks’ automated teller machine most of the time compare to other ICT facility been used in the banks. But, the banks’ corporate customers prefer to make use of branch networking facility of their banks. According to the theoretical frame work of CFS being used in this study, the CSFs based on data gotten from individual customers and corporate customers are automated teller machines and branch networking. In determining what the CFS are based on gender, the results show that female customers of the studied banks prefer to use internet banking and the male customers prefer to use automated teller machines. From the responses received from corporate customers, it shows that the critical success factor for the females is mobile banking and for the males is branch networking. The survey revealed that low internet connectivity, security and epileptic power supply are the worst factors limiting customers’ usage of their banks ICT facilities.