Socio-Demographic Variables as Correlate to the Application and Use of Social Media in Informal Sector in Southwest Nigeria: A Gender Perspective

The descriptive study aimed is on the Socio-Demographic Variables as Correlate to the Application and Use of Social Media in Informal Sector in Southwest Nigeria: A Gender Perspective. It investigates whether respondents have heard about social media in the informal sector; explore which gender’s demographic variables determine the use of social media. Four states in Southwestern Nigeria (Lagos, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti) purposively selected were used. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit quantitative data from 755 (81.9%) respondents out of 800 using convenience sampling technique. The IBM SPSS version 21 was used to analysed the data. Findings revealed that 2.6% men and 4.0% women and 31.7% men and 25.4% women heard about social media between less than 6 months to over 6 years respectively. The result of cross tabulation of age and social media use showed that 20.9% male and 14.6% female within age 15-25 years said yes, they use social media for business. On religion, 41.2% male and 31.7% female who are Christians also said yes, they use social media for business. Also, respondents with different educational qualification use social media for businesses even those who never have formal education (0.3% men and 0.5% women) likewise use social media. On marital status, 28.6% of single but never marry men and 26.8% of married women said yes, they use social media for business. In conclusion, none of the socio-demographic variables of people in the informal sector in southwestern Nigeria determine the application and use of social media.