The status and development of infopreneurship in Nigeria and South Africa

Abstract

In this study, we argue that there are unemployed information sector graduates who could benefit greatly from infopreneurship if more awareness and popularization of the practice were achieved. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status and development of infopreneurship in Nigeria and South Africa. The study focused on information-based businesses owned by graduates from LIS and other related fields in selected cities in Lagos State and Oyo State in Nigeria and Kwazulu Natal in South Africa. This study adopted the interpretative/qualitative method or approach. Both interviews and observation were used to gather information from the respondents and business sites. The respondents were identified through non probability sampling techniques, specifically purposive and snowball sampling. The target population was chosen from a list of registered small and medium information-based businesses as well as LIS graduates practicing infopreneurship in sampled cities in Nigeria and South Africa. Informationbased business owners and graduates from LIS and related information disciplines were picked from eight (8) distinct fields/disciplines, namely: information communication technology (ICT); mass media/ communication; telecommunication; libraries; archive and records management centers; publishing and printing sectors; computer science; and LIS education. The findings revealed that infopreneurship is a growing practice in the sampled cities. The sampled respondents revealed that there were more similarities than differences in infopreneurship in the two countries, and that there were more information-oriented businesses owned by IT and computer science graduates than library and information science/studies graduates. It was observed that most business products and services are ICT-oriented, such as software and hardware installation, tracking services, troubleshooting, web design, programming, CCTV installation, and online TV, among others. The study recommends the popularization of infopreneurship in the two countries and in computer science, media, communication, and Library and Information Science (LIS) schools. More government support is also recommended.