Towards an Interactive E-Government System in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Governments worldwide, including those in Africa, are embracing the promises and prospects of electronic service delivery (or e-government). In particular, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are moving towards adopting system-wide Integrated Communication Technology (ICT) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems to support Electronic Government (EG) services. There are reasons to believe that Africa stands at the threshold of a new experience in this century, but there are also considerable challenges ahead. This chapter examines some of the prospects and challenges of the continent's adoption of Electronic Government. The discussion focuses on the rationale and characteristics of e-government in Africa, as well as its strengths and weaknesses, with particular reference to two countries in the region – Ghana and Kenya. The chapter concludes with a synopsis of some of the key issues as well as salient lessons to highlight the broader future challenges and prospects of e-government in Africa.