Challenges to e-government implementation in developing countries. Nigeria case Study

Abstract

The rapid development in ICT industry and the increase in Internet usage around the world enabled some governments to provide e-services for citizens with the aim of improving service delivery, increasing citizen participation, and reduce cost of governance. E-government as a platform offers a large opportunity for improved service delivery. E-government promises lots of advantage in governance process but at the same time requires efforts for changing process, building infrastructures, capacity enhancement etc. Employing e-government to improve efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery in government structures is one facet of economic sustainability. However, the introduction of egovernment is about a radical change and reengineering within government agencies and the relationship between government and its citizens. Hence the implementation of e-government requires important political, cultural, organizational, technological and social issues which must be considered by any government considering its implementation. This paper presents an assessment of key factors that affect the implementation of e-government system in Nigeria using the Institutional Theory. Semi- structured interviews were conducted and used in this study to collect the data. The results of this study show that the most significant challenges and factors influencing the implementation of e- government services in Nigeria are related to corruption in public office, budgeting and financial costs, human expertise, resistance to change, technological issues, lack of IT professional in public offices, data privacy and security, the legal framework, lack of IT infrastructure, limited Power supply, administrative obstacles. Conclusions, recommendations and future work are stated at the end of the paper.