This study explored the acceptance of cloud computing (CC) services by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Lagos, Nigeria, which has been missing from CC services literature. It aimed to understand the motivations for adoption, the uses of the services, and the benefits they derive from it. The uses and gratification theory was applied as the theoretic framework for this endeavor. An online survey with close-ended and open-ended questions was distributed to 1200 randomly selected participants through email. In total, 392 valid responses were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and categories. The results found that SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria had a low level of awareness and appreciation of CC services. The adoption rate was also low. Unlike their counterparts in other regions, SMEs primary concerns were service downtime, stable power supply, and better internet access. The study found that SMEs were not taking full advantage of the capabilities of CC services. Some sections, however, were doing better than others, such as the information and communications sub-sector. This study suggested that targeted interventions should be conducted to raise the awareness of CC services in SMEs, and to improve their efficient and effective use of CC services. The uses and gratification theory was appropriate for guiding this study to understand the acceptance and use of CC services by SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria.

L’Afrique subsaharienne se présente, involontairement, comme une région en proie à une succession de crises, de conflits, de guerres civiles. Ces externalités négatives de l’instabilité socio-politique s’appréhendent, souvent, par le truchement du rite jaculatoire causal. D’où, les vocables « ethnies », « identité » – lorsqu’il n’est pas question de sous-développement, ou de l’injection du déficit démocratique –, auprès des commentateurs, sont, de façon cursive, convoqués pour expliquer le désordre perçu. Ainsi, les événements de 1994 au Rwanda sont ramenés à un conflit – « ethnique » – Hutu/Tutsi; négligeant par voie de conséquence l’acuité de la complexité de la réalité, ou à défaut, celle de la convergence de variables. Et pourtant, en descendant dans cette profondeur cognitive, tout observateur constaterait que l’instabilité socio-politique en Afrique subsaharienne reste une construction dans le temps et dans l’espace, optimisée par l’impénitent désir de pouvoir des acteurs politiques. Les structures historiques, loin d’être de véritables déterminants, participent à la construction sociale de la réalité porteuse d’idées, de règles et de pratiques représentationnelles qui érigent la nécessaire grammaire du bouleversement social. Nos présents travaux, non seulement, viennent examiner les causes habituellement avancées, mais s’opposent également aux arguments culturalistes mobilisés pour l’explication ou la compréhension de l’instabilité socio-politique en Afrique subsaharienne. C’est pourquoi, nous retenons que la justesse scientifique afférente à la compréhension du mouvement mécanistique socio-politique en Afrique subsaharienne est fonction du mode de connaissance de la réalité perçue. Par conséquent, nous estimons que l’instabilité socio-politique en Afrique subsaharienne, est un processus dynamique évolutif qui, nonobstant le désordre structurel, tend vers une stationnarité relative, puis absolue avant l’avènement de la stabilité. / Subsaharan Africa presents itself, involuntarily, like an area in the grip of a succession of crises, conflicts, civil wars. These negative externalities of sociopolitical instability are apprehended, often, by the means of the causal ritual. That's why, the terms "ethnic group", "identity" - when it isn't question of underdevelopment, or the injection of democratic deficit - near the commentators, in a cursory mention, are convened to explain the perceived disorder. Thus, the events of 1994 in Rwanda are brought back to a "ethnic" conflict Hutu/Tutsi; negleging consequently the acuity of the complexity of reality or failing this, that of the convergence of variables. And yet, while going down in this cognitive depth, any observer would note that sociopolitical instability in subsaharan Africa remains a construction in time and space, optimized by the unrepentant desire of power of the political actors. The historical structures, far from being true determinants, take part in the social construction of reality carrying ideas, rules, and practices representational which set up the necessary grammar of the social upheaval. Our present work, not only comes to examine the usually advanced causes, but is also opposed to the culturalist arguments mobilized for the explanation or the comprehension of sociopolitical instability in subsaharan Africa. This is why, we retain that the scientific accuracy related with the comprehension of sociopolitical mechanisitc movement in subsaharan Africa is function of the mode of knowledge of perceived reality. Consequently, we estimate that sociopolitical instability in subsaharan Africa, is an evolutionary dynamic process which, notwhithstanding, the strutural disorder, strives for a relative stationnarity, then absolute before the advent of stability.

No description available.