Analysis of Technology Adoption Barriers in Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises in North East Nigeria

This study analyses the barriers to production technology adoption in small and medium manufacturing enterprises in North East Nigeria, examining how security challenges, infrastructure constraints, and institutional factors shape technology adoption decisions in Adamawa, Gombe, and Borno states. Technology adoption in manufacturing SMEs is widely recognised as a pathway to productivity improvement and market competitiveness; however, the North East zone of Nigeria faces a distinctive combination of challenges arising from a decade of conflict-related disruption, weak infrastructure, and a constrained financial services environment that may create adoption barriers fundamentally different from those documented in other Nigerian zones. This research employs a mixed-methods design, combining a structured survey of two hundred and eighteen manufacturing SME owners and managers with qualitative in-depth interviews at twenty-four firms purposively selected for diversity of sector, size, and technology adoption status. Factor analysis of survey data identifies five latent barrier constructs: financial access constraints, infrastructure reliability deficits, technical skills shortage, security risk perception, and information and market access limitations. Structural equation modelling reveals that financial access constraints and security risk perception are the strongest barriers to adoption, with infrastructure reliability deficits acting as a significant moderator of the relationship between financial access and adoption intention. Keywords: technology adoption, manufacturing SMEs, North East Nigeria, adoption barriers, structural equation modelling