Assessment of Nigeria States and Local Governments, E-Government Readiness Submited by AKANMU, MUFTAH A E A!

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#$a%ter Five &'( #oncl)sions and Recommendations This chapter shall discuss the outcome of the study as analysed in the previous chapter and make some useful recommendations. &'* #ritical Anal+sis Every government main duty to the society is the services rendered to the public, which actually is a measure of performance for all governments. Thus all governments strive to make services available, effective and readily accessible and to keep up with the pace or even leapfrog ahead of developed nations. Especially since the internet boom of 1990s, when governments like businesses have been trying to use technology to foster a better relationship with their constituents. #$ook, %000&. 'any of the e(isting studies on e!government especially global e! government usually used the federal ) central government website for their assessment and result is usually clouded in believing that same standards operate all over the country. *hile not incorrect assessment of the federal government e!government practices is usually not a true reflection of the countries+ availability, sophistication and usage of e! government. The main purpose of this study thus is to assess the present state of electronic government #e!government& in ,igeria States and -ocal governments, level of preparedness of States and -ocal .overnments in the implementation of electronic government, the awareness and readiness of people of ,igeria to embrace electronic government. &'*'* State of ,#T in Nigeria state and local governments The strategic ob/ective of e!governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties0 government, citi"ens and businesses. The use owever unlike e!business or e!commerce e!government should and must be accessible to all citi"ens

of 1$Ts can connect all three parties and support processes and activities. 1n other words, in e!governance electronic means support and stimulate good governance. Therefore the ob/ectives of e!governance are similar to the ob/ectives of good governance #2ackus %001&. 3nswering the second research 4uestion0 what level of access do potential users have to a computer with 1nternet and other communication technologies5 3 lot of improvement has been noted in the information and telecommunication technology infrastructure in ,igeria especially following the deregulation of telecommunication industry and the .S' revolution of %001. The deregulation attracted many players into the industry that ultimately turn telecommunication business around positively in ,igeria. The .S' growth became e(ponential, popularising voice communication in ,igeria #3we, %006&. -ittle wonder 90 7 of respondents in this study have access to mobile phone. The same cannot be said of other information and telecommunication technology infrastructures0 only 89 7 and 19 7 of respondents have access to personal computer and digital television respectively. The average cost of a new laptop in ,igeria today is about 100,000 ,aira which is appro(imately :;00. This is a far cry for average ,igerians whose monthly take home is less than %<,000 ,aira, it thus means many ,igerians still see personal computer as lu(ury and not necessity. Therefore a class digital divide is created and many will still have to depend on used personal computer usually assembled by e(pert or imported from abroad. ,igeria federal government has set %01% as the year for full digital broadcasting in ,igeria. 3ll broadcasting stations are e(pected to switch from analogue broadcasting to digital television which takes less broadcast space that can be employed for new features such as interactivity and greater choice of channels. This e(plains why only few of the respondents actually claimed to have access to digital television. 3part from the digital divide created as a result of poverty. The e(plosive growth of mobile telephone took its turn on land phone, which is as good as dead in ,igeria today especially land phone from government own telecommunication company.

$hart <.1 =i(ed and 'obile phone Services

-ifted from ,igeria communication $ommissions &'*'- ,nternet access The internet described as the technology of the century #'bambo and $ron/e %00%&,& and as a very important phase in the development process, an indispensable and essentially important tool to bridge the gap between the developed nations and the under developed ) developing nations # offman, %0000 'ansell and *hen, 19960 ,gwainmbi, %000&. The internet is believed to be the most powerful and preferred mode of interaction and delivery of e!government. 3ll around the world governments have been investing lots of resources to boost their internet access for effective management process. 3ccording to 3we #%006& the boom that follows the industry deregulation in ,igeria has increased not only communication services but has seen growth in the number of internet providers, open more opportunities for e!business and seen a further increase in the number of internet users. 9< 7 of study respondent were connected to the internet while only 8< 7 have no internet connection. This is a clear improvement from when there are few internet user same time ten years ago. Table <.1 shows the internet usage statistics for ,igeria compare to >nited ?ingdom year %000 to 'arch %009.

Table <.1 1nternet usage statistic ,igeria and >nited ?ingdom @opulation 1nternet usage %000 1nternet usage %009 @enet ration 7 >sers growth %000 %009 >.? 90,9;8,91% ! ;8,%%1,;9 ; ,igeria 1;9,%<<,80 %00,000 9 10,000,00 0 SourceB 1nternet world stats %009 1t can be seen that the internet penetration in ,igeria is still very low with 9.6 7 population penetration as against A0 7 in the >.?. 1n 3merica an average of A07 use the internet at least once on daily basis #e!govt10&, whereas only 887 of survey respondents in ,igeria are using the internet daily. 3s much as ;0 7 of survey respondents may not use the internet for a period one month or a year. 1t is also worth noting that half of those that will use the internet on daily basis will be students. Cnly 9 7 of survey respondents used internet from home and 1% 7 from many places including home, work place ) school or internet cafe. *ith an average cost of :;00 e4uivalent of a personal computer, it will take a while for there to be a significant improvement in this $hart there by creating a further digital divide. 'inimum wage in ,igeria stands at less than :;0, meaning that it will take at least 10 months savings for an average worker to get a new laptop. 3s rightly pointed out by 3we #%006&0 cybercafD once unfamiliar word has now become so popular in ,igeria. 'any will still have to use internet cafe which tough is getting cheaper everyday but by no means can compare to comfort and security attached to working from home. The main reason for using the internet is not in any way different from the reason many internet users all over the world uses the internet. -ess than 1 7 of 9.6 7 ;,900 7 16.< 7 A0 7 160.A 7 7 users ! Europe ) 3frica 11.17

survey respondents have used the internet for transaction while over 90 7 did use the internet for e!mail and information search. 3ccording to a research by .artner #%001&, survey showed that many Europeans will use the internet more for information than for interaction. &'*'. E-government 1n an attempt to answer the last research 4uestion0 what are the general perception of e! government and willingness of government workers and students to embrace e! government5 1t was found that many of the respondents that took part in this study #867& have no prior knowledge of e!government. 3bout 807 have very little knowledge of it while /ust 80 7 have good ) very good knowledge of e!government. 3ll efforts on e! government are tantamount to nothing if not put to use. $iti"en on their part will only use the e!government if they know it e(ist and the benefit clearly outlined. 1n the same vein nearly two third of respondents who have used internet have never visited a government website. Study shows that half of all 3mericans and three!4uarters of 3merican 1nternet users already have interacted with a government website # art and Teeter %008&. There is /ust a slight difference in which government website is visited, five out of ten have visited state website, more than ; out of ten have visited federal website another one have visited both federal and state government websites while only one claimed to have visited website belonging to local governments. Cnly a few #187& of respondents who have visited government websites described the website visited as unsatisfactory, about #8%7& considered it somewhat satisfactory, while over half of survey respondents believed websites visited were satisfactory or even very satisfactory. 1n a study carried out by art and Teeter #%008& about 98 7 of

3mericans would use e!government primarily for obtaining information and secondarily for transactional purposes. 1n this study 68 7 of

respondents+ answers certainly revolve around information search while /ust 9 7 indicated using government website for business transaction. Even for those who have not visited government site, information search is still the ma/or reason they would like to use e!government for surpassing any other reasons0 interactivity or transactions. $onsidering the level of accessibility, it is again not surprising that many #;87& will still interact with government in person rather than any other means available to them0 mail #807& telephone #%A7&. To answer the first research 4uestion0 what are the current ways of interactions between government and citi"ens5 1t can be concluded that many people in ,igeria will prefer to do their business face to face i.e. lots are still not ready to go online but in line. E!government has changed the way governments operate and interact with citi"ens and vice versa, however there are still a lot of challenges and obstacles that have to be overcome in other to ma(imise the full benefit of e!government in developing countries. 3ccording to responses of survey respondents in this study0 internet is the foremost challenges to e! government in ,igeria, this is closely followed by lack of facilities, in! ade4uate power supply and lack of skills. Cther ma/or challenges include lack of e!government e(istence, lack of government initiatives. These two challenges are closely related as many are still not aware of e! government e(istence even when they do. The cost of having and using e!government, lack of common standard, security concerns lack of interest and lack of support score high among the many challenges of e! government in ,igeria. This is in support of 'ansell and *ehn #1996& assertion Ethat most basic information and telecommunication technology infrastructure is still unavailable, limited, irregular, unreliable and)or very costly.F 1n spite of all the odds and challenges many of the respondents still tend to favour e!government, on a scale of 1!<, G1+ being G,ever+ and G<+ G'ost likely+ nearly half of respondents will positively recommend ) champion

the course of e!government, about 8 out of ten are neutral on scale G8+ while less are on the negative side of the scale with 11 7 G,ever+. The second part of this dissertation looked at the internet for all local governments and states websites for scrutiny. This is an attempt to answer the third research 4uestion0 how much e!government presence is available in ,igeria States and -ocal governments5 3 total of 89 states and AA; local governments were searched using the .oogle and Hahoo search engine. 1t was found that no local government has any website posted online, %< of the 89 states searched have website posted. This is a clear indication of digital divide among the three arms of government in ,igeria. The states websites were scrutinised for certain feature that will assist in determining how much e!government is already being practised. 'any states were rated high or medium in the news features however most of the states websites ob/ectives were limited to digitalisation and a platform to divulge all state achievements and history. 'a/ority of news item, publications are all about party or government agenda and of little or no benefits to citi"ens. The forum group meant to determine how much the government is engaging with the citi"ens through forum ) chat room, opinion polls, feedbacks etc showed that only four states were rated high or medium. This means that many governments are still not ready to interact with the citi"ens, or know their opinion on pressing issues. ,early half of the states have links to other governments and non! governmental organisation sites as well as media files. 3gain the ob/ectives is not different as what were seen in study of news features, most if not all the media files were basically political party ) government activities related.

3ll features in the e!service group have close relations to e!government, in true sense of it only one state #Cndo state& showed any serious effort to implement e!government with some evidence of two way interactions. 3bout a 4uarter of the states were rated high or medium0 this is however possible because of marks score in other features in this group. 1t is very disheartening that no single local government in ,igeria has a web presence, 11 of the 89 states in ,igeria has no web presence, %% states can be classed under emerging stage with a web page and )or an official website even though some showed possibility of downloading. % states can be said to be in enhance stage characterised by a convincing downloading data base and unidirectional interaction. Cnly one state #Cndo state& with a bidirectional interaction can be classed in interactive stage, the state showed a clear understanding of e!government0 it is the only state with an online payment facility that will facilitate e!government delivery. 3 total of seven hundred and seventy four #AA;& local governments were search for website presence on net. ,o single local government has a website presence. Thirty si( #89& states of the federation were also search for website presence, eleven yielded no result, twenty two have website presence but with basic and limited information, two states showed evidence of enhanced website presence #unidirectional interaction&, while only one state can be said to be in the interactive stage with two ways interaction. &'- #oncl)sions 3s pointed out in earlier chapter, e!government is not /ust about computer or moving services offline to online, nor is it e!politics. E! government has gone beyond /ust electronic information provision to full service delivery. There is a clear leadership failure at the political and managerial level. 'any of the political leaders still cannot see the e! government vision or have deliberately ignore e!government in favour of

pro/ects that leaves opportunities for corrupt practises. 'any states e! government pro/ects do not have any services that meet citi"ens+ needs or wants rather such pro/ects have been turn to /ust another political tool and a platform to sing praises of government of the day particularly the state governors with the sole aim of perpetuating themselves in power #a government!centric, as against citi"en)business!centric focus&. 1t is of little surprise that in most of the sites studied, a large percentage of the archives, publications, images ) pictures, audio and video galleries, are all about the ruling party and the chief e(ecutive officers of the states. 3t the managerial level, often the Gchief e!government officers+ or Ge!government initiator+ are not 4ualified and without any formidable e!government strategy, resource planning or proper coordination. Even though a lot of progress has been recorded in the area of 1$T, this unfortunately is not enough, as pointed out in different studies by #'bambo, 19990 >,I@, %0010 addad and 'ac-eod, 1999& that 1$T infrastructures, power supply, telephone lines, are inade4uate, unreliable and costly, while illiteracy and lack of direction on the part of government are widespread posing a big threat to internet growth in developing countries. .overnment initiatives and e!government awareness among citi"ens is not enough. The fact that 907 of adults own a mobile phone does not necessarily e4uate to high cell phone usage0 lots still cannot afford the charges of making calls, hence their mobile phone are usually for receiving calls. Even though ,igeria recently celebrated ten year uninterrupted democracy, the enabling environment is still characterised by political instabilities and lack of direction resulting in lack of continuity, and poor maintenance culture in many of the states. There is still the ever present problem of electricity, many rural areas are still not connected to the power grid, many primary and secondary schools especially day school are still not with electricity. *hen there is electricity connection, the supply is never stable0 this ultimately is creating a further divide by increasing access cost when internet cafes have to result to alternative means of power supply.

1t can thus be concluded that e!government in ,igeria has been unsuccessful and will re4uire an honest political will and integrated approach that will be centrally controlled and monitored to achieve the many benefit of e!government. &'. Recommendations E!government has positively changed the way governments operate and interact with citi"ens and vice versa. =or e!government to be successful in ,igeria and for ,igerians to reap the benefits of e!government0 the e! government pro/ect needs to be separated from partisan politics. -eaders must ensure that e!government vision is integrated into the political programmes with the sole ob/ective of delivering good governance. Ieveloping a viable e!government pro/ect should not be left in the hands of state or local governments0 ,igeria has definitely not reach such stage. Jather e!government pro/ect should be centralised, maintained and control by an independent body set up by the federal government and if possible a single web portal should be encouraged. E!government is a very e(pensive pro/ect0 decentralisation even though claimed to be ine(pensive will only encourage corruption, lack of common standard and wastages. There is need for more efforts from government to promote acceptance of 1$T technology, incentivi"e citi"ens ) businesses to use the e!government and increase online presence. *hy do people still have to travel miles, waste their time and money to get a result of e(amination or result of an interview etc in this computer ) information age5 The benefits need to be e(plained to people, efforts should be made to compensate those who are socially and economically divided as a result of class, education, geographic location, culture, religion, age, gender and any other divides. .overnments in ,igeria need to e(ploit the fact that 907 of respondents have access to mobile phone, there should be concerted efforts to

ma(imise this situation by modelling an e!government that citi"ens will benefit from using their mobile phone as obtained in @hilippines, Solomon 1sland and Sri -anka where citi"ens use short wave radios #Jadio browsing& to interact with government. This will benefit a lot of citi"ens who cannot afford the price of internet ready personal computer. .overnment should take bold steps to reduce the price of 1$T infrastructures0 computers, other hardware and software. 1nternet access should be improved through provision of free public internet kiosks, at strategic places. This should be followed by ade4uate training for suppliers and users of e!government, citi"ens need to be trained to improve their computer skills enough for them to be able to take on e! government. The government must set target for citi"ens to use the e! government, some services can be moved completely online e.g. workers can be encourage to submit their annual appraisal form online0 students should submit assignment online etc. There should be reward for best practices of e!government as obtain in 3ustralia where there are the e! 3wards for e(cellence in e!government that rewards outstanding e! government practises. 1n >.?. the power of information taskforce, on behalf of government is supporting a government scheme GThe Show >s a 2etter *ay+ with a :%0,000 competitive price tag meant to support any ideas that will improve public communication means ETell us what youKd build with public information and we could help fund your ideaLF became their slogan. &'.'* /erformance Meas)re G1f you can measure it, you can manage it+. @erformance measures should be instituted to gauge the successes of e!government pro/ects. @erformance measures ensure that best practises are easily identified and challenges 4uickly noted and controlled. Through this most fre4uent activities can be determined and improved upon while unused services give way for more sought for ones. There is also cost effectiveness

&'.'- /rotot+%ing @rototyping known to be very effective in e!government development involves creating a small, active technological pro/ect ahead of a large scale implementation0 it can either be disposable prototyping when the pro/ect is not intended to be kept or incremental when the pro/ect is meant to metamorphose to a larger scale pro/ect # eeks, %001&. 'any states in ,igeria are still far away from adopting a comprehensive e!government0 it is therefore recommended that countries should start from a small pro/ect and progress to a larger one after perfecting the system. &'.'. 0enc$mar1ing 2enchmarking involves comparing practices or process to widely acclaimed best practices. 1t is a standard by which e!government

pro/ects can be /udged or compared to best practice e!government pro/ects. 1t affords every government delivering e!government the opportunity to assess their current position in terms of electronic service delivery of citi"ens needs0 this enables government to focus on improving strategic applications and processes and introduce significant reforms and process reengineering when necessary. The 2enchmarking process should be a continuous one with four recognised phases0 Studying the state e!government pro/ects and identifying

shortcomings. Study the e!government processes and operations of best practice countries in e!government >S3, Singapore, $anada, >nited

?ingdom, 3ustralia etc. $ompare performance =ormulate and implement strategy that will ensure bridging the gap

1t is therefore recommended that all states adopting e!government must ensure there is a result oriented risk performance measures, pro/ect M service 4uality improvement programmes, assessments,

management as well as information technology audit and control measures instituted. &'.'2 ")tso)rcing The more technical aspect of e!government like online payment should be outsourced to e(pert. The national bodies should take an integrated approach and work together with all stakeholders0 The ,ational e! .overnment Strategies #,e.St&, The 2ureau of @ublic Service Jeforms #2@SJ& task with the responsibility of ensuring the effective and efficient implementation of the public service reforms of the =ederal .overnment of ,igeria. The ,ational 1nformation Technology Ievelopment 3gency #,1TI3&, task with the responsibility of bringing government and its services closer to the people through 1T, and entrusted with the implementation of the ,ational 1T policy, which, has been mandated to supervise the management of the country code Top -evel Iomain as a national resource. 3ll these are national agencies that should be strengthen and have their /urisdiction e(tended to include all tiers of government in order to scale up whatever is achieved, bridge the digital gap been created in the three arms of government in ,igeria and maintain sustainability. =urther studies on sub/ect matter are recommended0 future studies should attempt to compare the states e!government pro/ects and find the political, social and economic implication of implementing e!government pro/ects in ,igeria.