USE OF MOBILE PHONES FOR BUSINESS ACTIVITIES AMONG AQUACULTURE FARMERS

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how fish farmers use their mobile phones for business activities in Edo State. 71 fish farmers in Ekiuwa fish farming cluster were chosen for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to gather the data for the study. The collected data were examined using inferential (correlation) and descriptive (frequency counts, percentages, and mean) statistics. Findings from the study revealed that about half of the respondents are within the ages of 36 – 45years (53.5%). The majority of farmers (71.8%) were men, and 90.1% of them were married. Taking pictures for business purposes (100%), sending and receiving money (100%), using social media such as WhatsApp (100%) and SMS platforms (100%) were found to be the business activities fish farmers mostly used mobile phones for. Acquiring loans (2.9%) and using aquaculture related apps (18.9%) were not widely used. However, use of mobile phones was constrained by the problem of mainly poor network coverage (68%). Findings from the study revealed that fish farmers were competent in the use of mobile phones and had favorable perception towards its use but declined with increasing age. The study recommends training to increase the versatility of farmers especially older farmers on mobile phone for business activities use.