Business, Technology and the New Normal: ICT Adoption and Use among Women Traders

Abstract

The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled individuals and businesses to restructure and adapt the formerly ‘established’ ways of doing things to capitalize on the opportunities presented by ICTs. This circumstance has resulted in what is known as the “New Normal”. This entails a longer-term perspective in terms of business decisions to optimize the usage of the internet to continue to stay in business. To evaluate women’s knowledge, and ICT use during the pandemic in Yilo Krobo Municipality, the survey approach was used. A total number of 20,160 women are employed constituting 5.4% in the public sector, private formal 3.5%, private informal 90.8%, semi-public/parastatal 0.1% while NGO represents 0.2%. A statistical table was used to determine the sample frame and size resulting in a sample size of 322 from a population of 20,160 women employed with a confidence level of 95%. Three hundred and fifty (350) questionnaires were distributed and only 193 were completed, returned and used for analysis. With regards to ICT devices or services, the findings revealed that about 95% of the respondents had access to mobile phones and 70% of these respondents were connected to the internet through their mobile phone hotspot. The study discovered a low level of adequacy of knowledge of ICT use across variables such as age groups, educational attainment, and marital status.