Abstract

Waste scavenging (Wsng) is a means of survival among marginalised or poverty stricken groups
of people. Women in these categories participate to contribute to the financial upkeep of their
families. Some of these women in most cases are the breadwinners of their families. The work
they do contributes to a cleaner environment that leads to the removal and reduction of waste
from the environment. This study was designed to explore the ICT capacities of women
scavengers (WS) in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria. The eleven local government areas in Ibadan
were divided into urban and semi-urban areas. Sixteen samples were randomly selected from the
urban areas while fifteen were selected from the semi-urban areas giving a total of 31 samples.
Primary data were collected through the use of questionnaires administered via face-to-face
interview. The results showed that the mean age of the women was 52.14±13.79 years. 40% of
women who are less or equal to 30 years old do not have mobile phones while 16.7% of them
use smartphones. Furthermore, 60% of the women who had basic phones made/received phone
calls about their business the previous day while about 70% of those who had mobile phones
earned less than N1000 (2.18USD) per day. The use of ICTs is low among women scavengers in
Ibadan and they should be encouraged to adopt its use to enhance their businesses.