A STUDY INTO THE CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF MARKETING NIGERIAN MADE COMPUTER SOFTWARES

A STUDY INTO THE CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF MARKETING NIGERIAN MADE COMPUTER SOFTWARES

Background to the Study

Made-in-Nigeria softwares are those that are produced within Nigeria. Nigeria as a third world country needs to produce its own software so that it will help develop its economy in terms of growth and stability.
The Nigerian government in 1988 took another bold step to encourage favorable attitudes towards made-in-Nigerian goods in a bid to actualize the Enterprises promotion Decree. The basis of this decree was to reduce foreign dominance on the economy, encourage local retention of profit, and create employment opportunities amidst other objectives. Since independence in 1960, a lot of changes have taken place in the country economically, politically and socially which as a result, firms, small and large have gone down the drain. The cause of this was mainly due to lack of good management and leadership in the country as well as lack of vision and foresight. The country is plagued with large scale under capacity resource utilization, power supply that cannot be used for any meaningful planning purpose and a whole economy that cannot be forecasted.
Marketing implications of the above scenario will be: irregular supply of products, supply of lower quality product due to dwindling income of consumers, fluctuating prices due to product shortages, low reputation of manufactured goods, low motivation towards advertising, low marketing orientation and a general consumer discontent with home made goods (Aire,pp.46-62, 1973:Kalegha et al 1983,p.5). However, with the democratization of the system and the call to the citizenry to look inward for a sustainable growth through self-reliance, it is therefore, hoped that Nigerians will develop favourable attitudes towards made in Nigeria goods.

1.2 Statement of the Problem
Previous studies have shown that Nigerians have unfavourable attitudes toward home made products (Aire, 1973,pp.46-62; Kolegha et al,p.7 1983). The purpose of the
Present study is to investigate the marketability of made in Nigeria software and the
Current attitude of Nigerian consumers towards made in Nigerian software. This study aims to;