CHAPTER ONE
1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Implementing successful e-commerce service is not as easy as most people might think. Many obstacles exist and they all revolve around three major pieces of the electronic commerce puzzle-money, technology and people. Hence, there is limited research on e-commerce in developing countries particularly in Africa. Sometimes the cost of avoiding e-commerce is greater than the cost of initiating it. Web technology is still developing. Despite the global reach of e-commerce, not all country has taken advantage of ecommerce. There is a big gap in the internet and e-commerce adoption between the developed and developing country, thus creating a digital divide.
Nigeria with a population of about l5Omillionpeople is a potentially lucrative market for e-commerce services. Nigeria being one the few nations in the world blessed with abundant mineral wealth, and entrepreneurial population and productive agricultural base. By virtue of size, population location is well positioned to the economic activities in Africa. E-commerce is an opportunity to use private sector to drive economic development.
The banking sector has been most successful with e-commerce in Nigeria. The main obstacles that prevent developing countries from leveraging the interest are lack of adequate communication infrastructure, technical know-how and information processing about the economy and the environment. The lack of adequate banking infrastructure is also considered as one of the problems faced by developing countries in building economic solution.