E-GOVERNMENT IN AFRICA

Strengthening it through European Co-Operation

Michael Iniobong Eka

Computer Centre, Ministry of Finance, Government of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Department of Information Technology, National Open University of Nigeria, Calabar Study centre, Nigeria

Keywords: e-Government, e-government practises in Africa, Standardizing e-government practise in Africa.

Abstract: E-government remains the most efficient way in recent times to get on course government - citizen

interaction programmes. Many European and Asian countries have standardized their e-government

practices and certainly have their citizens using these facilities at ease. But the reverse is the case in Africa.

Though some African countries have taken steps towards e-government practices, the process cannot be

compared to that of Asia and Europe, since African citizens are yet to relate with the government through

this medium in an effective manner. This paper X-rays e-government practices in Africa, with a case study

of the state, regional, and national governments in Nigeria. It also focuses attention at other African

countries. This paper gathered its sources of information from a sample online questionnaire on IT

personnel in government which we posted through www.afreel.com. I also used my experience as IT

personnel in the service of with a state government in Nigeria. The problems are highlighted and solutions

proffered in a possible African - European countries co-operation.

1 INTRODUCTION

E-government continues to witness most African

countries as newcomers to an online service delivery

system by government to its citizens, which have

today become a global standard for governments. In

its recent seventh annual survey (2007) of 198

government websites around the world carried out

by Brown University, African countries dominate

bottom of the table on the web survey, while Asian

countries (South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan)

occupied the first 3 spots. United States and Great

Britain followed as 4

and 5

respectively (West,

Darell M. 2007).

The first 20 ranking is dominated by European

countries and indeed the entire survey, which is an

index for a steady progress of electronic services

delivery and good practices and understanding of e-

government by European countries. Though

significant progress is being made by some African

countries with an acknowledgement to the

contributions of New Partnership for African

Initiative NEPAD in this regards, a lot of constraints

impede this project by these few Africa countries,

while others still have a long way to go. While the

national governments in Africa are recording

significant progress, the states (regional) and the

local governments are partially if not totally (in

some cases) far from implementing e-government.

The states and the local governments are those

governments that are very close to the citizens and

have its policies and programmes directly

influencing to the people. E-government becomes

very important at this level to offering its citizens the

opportunity to participate in the process of

governance. The 2007 European E-Government

Awards report (EUROPA, 2007), the city of

Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and the Besançon

from France picked up one of the prestigious awards

among others. The case in Africa shows the reverse.

The first ever 2007 Technology in Government in

Africa (TIGA) Awards sponsored by the UN

Economic Commission for Africa and the Canadian

Government (ECA, 2007), showed no award to city

governments, rather only to the national

governments with Angola and Rwanda taking the

lead. At the National level of government, there is a

steady work and in an e-direction, but in the other

tiers of governments, so much is yet to be done

especially in the last tier of government (the local or

city governments).

A good frame work of e-government in Europe

has aided and encouraged different levels of

483

Iniobong Eka M. (2008).

E-GOVERNMENT IN AFRICA - Strengthening it through European Co-Operation.

In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, pages 483-487

DOI: 10.5220/0001518304830487

 SciTePress

governments to consider it as the best form of

service delivery to its citizenry. While other level of

government benefit from the information technology

(IT) infrastructures set up by their national

governments to establish a firm position on e-

government, others use the established IT

framework to get there. This happens to be the

bedrock of a firm e-government practice among

European countries. The result of the survey I

carried out online among IT and non IT staff of

government in Nigeria and other African countries

like Ghana, indicates that the IT framework used by

the national governments in Africa, setup by

NEPAD as a guide on IT are not strictly followed by

other tiers of the government..

2 THE PRACTICE IN AFRICA

To start with, we will take a detailed look at the

mode of e-government operation in Nigeria, while

also surveying Africa as a whole. In Nigeria, most

practices of the government as regards (e)

electronics is for information. Efficient and effective

e-government practices is yet to be implemented to

reflect some elements of interactions to enhance a

government-to-government or government to

citizens or government to commerce interactions as

e-government is more about government

responsibilities to its citizens. This is an area that

government has not done well in Africa. All the

State own their personal websites, but non integrate

service delivery, though some governments are

beginning to look inwards. All these websites at the

states or regional levels as indicated by the survey

carried out are for information purpose, showcasing

its potentials to the world. So far, very negligible

number of local governments has been able to have a

presence on the internet. This therefore makes it

difficult to access information about the activities of

Nigerian local governments.

In the area of interaction with the citizens, the

Federal Capital Territory and Lagos States compared

to the country itself have made head-way in the

establishments of the Tax and Land Allocation

online system respectively. These are 2 states out of

36 in the entire country. The winning project of

Angola “Projecto Portal do Governo” aims at

bringing all government PUBLIC INFORMATION

and SERVICES under one platform and made

available to it citizen on the Internet, and Kenya is

devising a system to automate Secondary School

placement and examination results (ECA, 2007)

among other African countries are done at the

national level of government. Though many EU

countries have gone far in projects of this nature, the

states and local government who run similar systems

at their level of governance have no plans for e-

solutions for its citizens. For instance the survey

result shows that in Nigeria, while the national

examination body have gone electronic, having

registration and checking of results done online, no

state operating junior exams has done so. Nigeria

only makes a good progress in the academic sector

with university-to- student and Examination body-

to-candidates interactions. This opens the doors for

students/examination candidates to access their

records online. The Nigeria Immigration Services

also offer online Passport acquisition and renewal

through its web portal. Talking about online

transaction, it is the business sector that has put in a

focused step like the banks offering online

transaction. This means that e-business has moved

ahead of e-government in Africa. The case of

Nigeria is similar to that of other African nations.

Ghana for instance is yet to extend its e-government

services to its district assemblies (Manuh, T. (Feb.

03), while East African countries are yet to actually

implement e-government properly (Tanzania e

Secretariat, 2001).

3 SURVEY CONDUCTED/

FINDINGS

I posted an online questionnaire on the Internet

through www.afreel.com to survey the number of IT

personnel in various local (city), state governments

and the federal government in Nigeria that have

undergone enough IT training to support e-

government. I also surveyed how many local and

state governments in Nigeria with a population of

over hundred million people that actually delivers

any form of service to its citizens using e-

government. From the survey, 1052 people

participated. 820 (77.94%) of this number were

government staff across Africa with majority from

Nigeria. Of the government personnel, 670 (81.7%)

of the respondents believe that majority of African

population are computer illiterates who do not know

not how useful the Internet can be to them or even

worse, how to use the computer. 960 (91.3%) of the

entire respondents believe that the government have

not done enough to eradicate computer illiteracy

among its citizens. 422 (51.5%) of government staff

respondents admitted having failed and abandoned

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good ICT projects in their organizations. Of these

422 respondents, 416 (98.6%) of respondents

believe the lack of political will and understanding

of the leaders is responsible for abandoning this

projects. 811 (98.9%) of government staff

respondents agree that training of government IT

personnel and gaining experiences from more

advanced nations on e-government can help move

African nations forward on the practice. While using

the survey in the course of this work, it was

discovered that more impact would be created if the

EU countries can assist African nations especially

the lower tiers of government to come on board in

the implementation of e-government.

Also from the survey, it was discovered that out

of 36 states in Nigeria, non except Lagos and Abuja

actually delivers any form of service to its citizens

through the Internet. Almost all the states do own a

website, some state governments own websites

without the country’s top level domain name. Most

states see the website only as showcasing its

potentials to the world, while others just count the

website as an achievement of its administration.

Most of the state’s websites are not updated

regularly. 543 (66.2%) of government staff

respondents noted that IT personnel of the

government in most of the tiers of government are

not capable of manning the e-government setup. The

same 66.2% also said that their various states and

local (city) governments actually delivered no

service(s) to the public via their portal except

information only. So they advocated in the survey

for more regular training from successful e-

government countries.

1. With the countries winning (TIGA) Awards, it

will be very impossible to create an impact among

citizen with the existence of a large gap in the digital

divide among Africans. About 80% of Africans have

no access to IT facilities and steady power according

to majority of the respondents who participated in

the survey. Therefore using E-Government to touch

them will be an up hill task. These and more were

some of the issues we observed as a problem of e-

government practices in Nigeria/Africa.

2. The survey also shows that many states in

Nigeria are yet to make up plans for electronic

service delivery. Some respondents pointed out that

it is only Akwa Ibom and Lagos states out of 36

states have actually commenced work in this

direction by setting up committee to actualize e-

government.

3. 90% of respondents considers lack of power

as a major setback to starting e government in

Nigeria

4. 60% of respondents view the limited vision of

African leaders and political instabilities as also

disturbing the practice of e-government in Africa.

5. 81% of respondents feel a possible co-

operation between an African and European country

could become a yard stick for success in Africa.

Majority of respondents also saw lack of competent

and trained personnel in government as a bane to

success in e-government in Africa.

4 THE EXPECTED

E-GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

IN AFRICA

The practices of e-government in Africa should be

able to move further from where it is today, to that

of enhancing services delivery to its citizenry.

African government at different levels should

establish an e-government portal to reflect.

- Online Payment Solution/ Tax Payments

Some Information Technology companies in

collaboration with banks in Africa now offer

electronic payment in local currencies, but this

payment solution is yet to gain acceptance as

Africans are so comfortable in counting physical

cash. Government need to come in here by

enlightening the citizens on the benefits of electronic

funds and also enforcing its usage by also using it to

pay for services. Every citizen and corporate bodies

should be able to pay their tax online and at their

convenience. The system also should be able to

carryout transfer of the funds from the payer to the

government accounts.

- Online Land Allocation

Application for Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)

should no more be a matter of people making

journey to the capital to apply and pay for C of O

when they can as well do it at their homes or various

offices. At a government business portal, such

application and payment should be made.

- Visa Application

Nationals from other nations visiting Africa should

be able to apply for visa online for proper

documentation.

E-GOVERNMENT IN AFRICA - Strengthening it Through European Co-Operation

485

- Government - Citizen Interaction

The government should be able to communicate

with its citizens concerning its policies and also have

its citizens react to its policies and contribute to the

governance. Every member of a constituency should

be able to reach out to its parliamentarian at will

through a government portal.

5 PROBLEMS MILITATING

AGAINST E-GOVERNMENT

PRACTICES IN AFRICA

From the findings, e-government practices in Africa

can thrive well if the following impediments could

be addressed:

Reliable Power Supply

Interrupted power supply is a very big bane to

success of e-government in Africa. Power supply

installations are so obsolete and blackout could last

for weeks if not months in a stretch. This becomes a

big set back for any meaningful progress so long as

ICT is concern.

Lack of Proper ICT infrastructure

Installed infrastructures are not measured to the

capacity of users. Without estimation, ICT

equipments like VSATs with small bandwidth

installed to support an over populated users within

an area. One major problem here are the installations

by telecom operators who install equipments that

under-carries the population. This results in over

crowding of the network, which causes connectivity

problem.

High IT Illiteracy Rate among Africans

According to the Internet usage and penetration rate

statistics in the world (World Internet Stats, 2007),

shows that in Africa (57 Countries) with 933, 448,

282 population in 2007 estimate for Africa, only 44,

319, 240 use Internet in Africa as at September 2007

with a penetration rate of 4.7% and a broadband

Internet subscribers of 1, 097, 200 as compared to

that of European Union countries (EU27) with a

2007 estimated population of 493, 119, 161, having

267, 458, 327 Internet users with a penetration rate

of 54.2% and a broadband Internet subscribers of 87,

413, 669. This statistics shows that no matter the e-

government services rendered by African

Governments, if the IT illiteracy rate is not reduced

by IT education and training, it will remain

meaningless among the citizens.

Lack of Proper Framework to be followed

by All Tiers of Government

There are no frame works or policy set by the

government to guide all the tiers of government.

This result in having every government experiment

the e-government and mounting wrong

infrastructures which makes them abandon the

project of online service delivery.

Political Will by African Leaders

African leaders need to be properly educated on the

benefits of e-governments, most of our leaders

carryout e-government projects not to deliver

services to the people, but to boast their political

ego. This results in most of the projects being

abandoned during or before installation. Again, most

African leaders feel scared of opening their

administrations to public scrutiny if they introduce

e-government. This drives them away from e-

projects.

Lack of Well Trained ICT Manpower in

Government

IT practitioners are not really planned for in

government. Those employed are for normal

computer operation and training are not planned for

them in e-government practices. ICTpractices

changes on a more frequent basis. This is not taken

into consideration in order to enhance updating and

training of IT staff. This again makes the staff

unable to offer support on any egovernment

installation.

Lack of Private Sector Involvement in

e-Government

Private sector firms who have the technical

capabilities to support e-government don’t really

partner with government on this projects. Most of

their proposal to handle this e-government system by

the private sector rarely get a committed support

from the government. Whereas most of the

infrastructure mounted by the private sector could be

used by the government in service delivery, some

government prefers to go solo based on what they

saw outside the country without expert support nor

even using the existing private sector infrastructure

and fails on the way. Therefore to a greater extent,

Africa leaders hold the key to a successful

implementation of this global governance in Africa.

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6 SOME SOLUTIONS

PROFFERED

1. Workshops for Africa Leaders of Different

Levels of Government

There is a high need for workshops/seminars to be

mounted for African political leaders by those

successful e-government countries and private firms

in Europe, to oriented African leaders on the actual

practice of service delivery through e-government.

Just as the Millennium Development Goal frame

work is being shared globally, there should be a

sharing of e-government frame between European

countries and their African counterpart. Cross

fertilization of ideas and input will strengthen the

practice in Africa, and more lessons also learn in

Europe.

With these workshops, the leaders themselves

will in turn take over the re-orientation of its

workforce and citizens on e-government

management and service delivery respectively.

2. Establishing of Pilot Programme in

e-Government between a State or Country in

Europe and Africa

I propose for good practice, a possible co-operation

between e-government practicing states in Europe

and piloting states in Africa. Just as the USAID

support in aids to Africa, a province in a European

country can establish a linkage with an African

country on e-government practices. This they will

help bring up the e-gov. infrastructures and practices

to come in line with what is obtainable in their states

and the world. Since it is going to be a linkage

programme, there will be enough interest and

continuity from the African partners. This will help

take the project in Africa to an international level.

3. Exchange and Training of IT Personnel

European countries should exchange IT personnel

supporting e-government with African countries and

also accept those to man the same projects in Africa

for experience to be shared and acquired in African

practice. Since Africa will be learning from their

experience, there is a high need of this exchange to

afford those personnel to be involved from Africa to

get a first hand knowledge on the practice in Europe.

Training during this exchange programme which

will see European and African countries playing host

to each other should be carried out at each point of

the visit. Lasting practical lessons will be learnt at

this level of the co-operation. This in a long way will

move forward the e-government project in Africa.

4. Assess Infrastructures and Make Inputs

African infrastructures will have to be assessed to be

sure that what they have are up to international

acceptability. If the infrastructures in place are not to

standard and future expansion not planned for, the

whole project will remain where it is as at today.

7 CONCLUSIONS

Some African countries have moved a long way in

the area of service delivery through the internet to its

citizens while others are still a long way to go. The

practice of e-government in Africa will change so

much if the experience of the European countries

could be tapped either by collaboration or training. If

some European nations especially states and local

(city) governments can initiate collaboration with

their counterparts in Africa, a global standard will

then be established in Africa. This paper therefore

submits that governments at all levels, private

sectors, and IT associations at all levels of

governance; individuals can help standardize these

e-government practices by initiating the moves to

strengthen the practice Africa through this proposed

co-operation or a joint Government – Government or

Private Sector – Government initiative.

Lack of this service turn the people to war since

the government cannot deliver satisfactory services

to the people thereby threatening the world’s

stability. Therefore, European countries who have

proved successful in this practice should establish a

nation to nation or state to state partnership to bring

all to the same level of e-government practice.

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2007.

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2007.

Technology in Government in Africa (TIGA) awards

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www.uneca.org/disd/events/2007/tiga/main.html.

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2007 from Thematic Portal, www.ec.europa.eu/infor-

mation_society/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=3639

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