‘Only Hard Copies Accepted Here:’ E-governance in Developing Countries -- A Nigerian Case Study

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) sponsors a survey of countries to generate the e-government development index (EGDI). The goal is to provide “relevant information to support policy makers in shaping their e-government programs for development” (United Nations E-Government Survey, 2014: 185). The EGDI is a composite of three indicators: the Online Service Index (OSI), the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII) and the Human Capital Index (HCI). The UNDESA instrument was adapted, with the necessary modification (given the difference in the units of analysis), to examine the status of e-government in Nigeria through a study of 36 federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and 12 state governments across the country's six geopolitical zones to achieve goals similar to that of the EGDI. It is also expected to contribute to the general understanding of e-government adoption in Nigeria. Specifically, the research, conducted between 2015 and 2017, is aimed at providing an understanding of: · the pattern and nature of ICT usage by public sector officials · the degree to which ICT usage by civil servants connects with the core mandates of their departments or states; · the level of ICT-enabled citizen-government interactions. Methodology: The main research instrument was a questionnaire administered to the heads of ICT departments and ICT advisers to governors with and follow-up interviews and observations of office processes. An analysis of the websites of agencies and states included in the survey was conducted, using the Online Services Index of the UNDESA, to assess the level of government online services available to Nigerians. Findings: Preliminary analysis of the research indicates a substantial disconnection between practice and government’s declarations about the utility of ICTs in government for efficiency, transparency, accountability, and to bridge the gap between the government and citizens. Also, ICT usage by the public sector in Nigeria is far from transformative. Rather, it maintains the traditional top-down and unresponsive model of government that ICTs were expected to eliminate. For instance, the routine administrative practices of much of the public sector are still undergirded by traditional, analogue and paper-based processes. Significance: While the biennial UN E-government Readiness Survey provides useful data on the state of e-government in countries, this research goes deeper by examining e-government adoption by sub-units in a particular country. It therefore makes significant contribution to the field by providing useful primary data to facilitate further research on the integration of ICTs in the public sector in developing countries. In addition, it can inform the formulation of relevant policies for strategic leveraging of ICTs in all activity sectors in the country. Finally, this research falls under the 2017 TPRC theme of “Evaluation of programs (public, nonprofit, private) to increase access to, and adoption of, communications, information and Internet technologies and services” by contributing a case study of ICT adoption in the public sector of a developing country.