Information Needs, Utilization and Socio-economic Empowerment of Textile Market Women in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Information is essential and crucial to decision making. Reliable information is necessary for building the awareness resources and practical strategies to improve life time experiences capable of enhancing direct access to knowledge and power. The study therefore investigated the information behaviour and socio-economic empowerment of textile market women in Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design and purposive sampling technique to select two Geo-political Zones in Nigeria. Findings showed that there was a relative influence of information needs, seeking, sources, and use on the socio-economic empowerment of the textile market women. It was also discovered that information seeking has the highest significant influence on the socio-economic empowerment of the textile market women (β=0.48; t= 16.64; p=0.000<0.05). Next to this was information sources (β=0.30; t=13.05; p-0.000<0.05) and identification of information needs (β=0.14; t=5.05; p=0.000<0.05). However information use had no significant influence (β=0.01; t=0.81; p=0.859>0.05). The result indicated that the Nigerian textile market women were innovative, dynamic and creative in their entrepreneurial activities when they are empowered with information, which invariably would bring self-sustainability and societal development. The study concluded that the information behaviour of Nigerian textile market women in terms of needs, seeking, and sources have significant influence on their socio-economic empowerment. Key Words: Information needs, Information use, Socio-economic empowerment, Textile market women