Publication Details
Abstract
Database management is essential to modern organisations for the storage, processing, retrieval, protection and sharing of information. This study examined database management challenges in some Nigerian organisations, focusing on security, resource limitations, data quality, scalability, backup and recovery, integration, infrastructure and database technologies. A mixed-methods design was adopted using an online questionnaire and telephone interviews. A total of 132 respondents participated, while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and a Random Forest machine-learning classification approach. The findings showed that limited resources was the most reported challenge (30.3%), followed by data security and integration/interoperability (18.2% each), and backup and recovery (12.1%). Cloud-based DBMS was the most commonly used technology (48.5%), followed by relational DBMS (42.4%). The machine-learning analysis identified organisation size as the most influential predictor of database management challenges, followed by DBMS type and years of experience. The study concludes that database management in Nigerian organisations is constrained by resource limitations, security concerns, integration difficulties and infrastructure challenges. It recommends investment in database infrastructure, stronger security controls, regular backup procedures, professional training and adoption of appropriate modern database technologies.