Leveraging Digital Technology on Inland Waterways in Selected Terminals of Lokoja, Gbajibo and Gbajibo-Mundi in North-Central Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

Inland Waterways Transport (IWT) in the North Central Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria has huge potential for movement and trade. The potential is however, limited by its analog systems of operation coupled with poor and inadequate infrastructure. Against this backdrop, this study evaluates the feasibility of leveraging digital technology in three selected terminals namely; Lokoja, Gbajibo and Gbajibo-Mundi in Kogi, Niger and Kwara States respectively in the North Central Geo-Political Zone. Survey design was adopted for the study and data were collected from 384 respondents including 65 Government officials, 106 boat operators and 213 passengers/members of the community. The questionnaire for the survey was drawn on a 4-point Likert Scale plus key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics, mean scores and Chi-square/Anova in SPSS version 26 was used for data entry for the purpose of data analysis. According to the findings, 96.9% of Government officials disagreed that infrastructure is adequate across the three terminals. 87.7% and 82.1% among officials and operators respectively agreed that the terminals are underutilized. 87.7% of officials, 88.7% of operators and 90% of passengers identified analog system as a major limitation. Digital transition was overwhelmingly supported by 92.3% of officials, 88.75 of operators and 92% of passengers while 90.8% key in to automation. The findings revealed that 42.3% have disregard for safety codes and 33.8% pointed to inadequacy of boats as major challenges mitigating against operational efficiency in the study area. 46% of respondents prioritized the introduction of technology and their improvement’s expectation. Chi-square results indicates that analog systems affect effectiveness P < .05 significantly while Anova showed no difference in support for digitalization across groups P = .122. Conclusively, stakeholders are ready for digitalization despite infrastructural shortfalls. The study recommends upgrade of terminals capacity building through staff training, and digital enforcement of safety codes in the selected terminals.