Easing the burden of fixed telephone lines on small-scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria: GSM lines to the rescue

The study reported in this paper investigated the socio-economic characteristics of the adopters of GSM lines and the factors determining the adoption of GSM lines by small-scale entrepreneurs in a major Nigerian city (Ibadan). The results of the study confirm the widely held notion that the advent of mobile telephony in Nigeria has significantly improved telephone access among the strata of the population that could not afford the relatively expensive and inefficient fixed telephone lines. The relatively lower cost of acquiring GSM lines stands out more than any other factor as the driver of decision to adopt GSM lines by small-scale entrepreneurs. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that factors such as number of apprentices employed, sales turnover, and type of business are also important determinants of the adoption of GSM lines by small-scale entrepreneurs. The parameter estimates of these variables have positive sign and are statistically significant at 1% level. Results also suggest that the relatively new small-scale entrepreneurs are more proactive in the adoption of GSM lines than entrepreneurs that are older in business. In addition, the findings suggest that female small-scale entrepreneurs are generally younger in age though it is unclear whether they are more proactive than their male counterparts in the adoption of GSM lines. Entrepreneurs in service sectors are also more likely to adopt GSM lines than those in manufacturing.