E-readiness of public extension personnel for service delivery in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the e-readiness of the public extension  personnel in Benue State of Nigeria for effective extension service  delivery. Data were collected from seventy-seven (77) personnel randomly sampled. Frequency counts, percentages and mean scores were used to summarize the data collected while  e-readiness index was used to assess the overall readiness of the personnel. Result reveals that the majority (74.0%) had HND/  First degree as their highest educational qualification, with an  average of 28 years work experience. The technologies available to personnel were alternative power generator (97.4%), computers (72.2%) and e-library (58.4%). The majority (76.6%) of the  respondents opined that their computers were not in functional state. On their proficiency of computer usage, power point presentation (M= 2.00), email operation (M= 2.00) and excel spread sheet (M= 2.00) had the highest perceived proficiency. Public extension personnel in the State were barely ready on the resources available (RA = 1.97) and not ready on the accessibility to ICT (AICT = 1.35) and barely ready based on their perceived quality of ICTs (PQICT = 1.69), as well as perceived importance of ICTs (PIICT = 2.14) on the adherence to policies and regulations, they were barely ready (P&R= 1.93). In all public extension personnel in Benue State were barely ready (e-readiness = 1.816). The study among other things recommends among other things that the extension administrative staff should encourage the use of emails in exchanging information among staff.
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Keywords: E-readiness, public extension personnel, information and communication tools