Keywords: e-governance, ICT, web presence, online presence, Internet and cloud computing.

THE IMPACT OF E-GOVERNANCE AND ICT INFRASTRUCTURE ON SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Gloria Chukwudebe, FNSE, SMIEEE and E. E. Atimati, MNSE Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State Nigeria gachukwudebe@futo.edu.ng, mailehinomen@gmail.com ABSTRACT The day-to-day business of government or any organisation is built on information. Information is a critical resource that helps organizations to manage operations effectively. With the revolutionary changes that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is bringing to our global society, organizations and governments worldwide have embraced ICT for governance. Many countries have put in place appropriate ICT infrastructure and adopted e-governance because of its numerous benefits, namely; increased accountability and transparency, reduced cost of governance and corruption, elimination of bureaucracy, equal access to information and efficient service delivery. In this paper, a review of e-government evolution and the United Nations 4- stage model framework for benchmarking the various stages in evolution of e- government services of countries is presented. The highlights of the United Nations 212 survey of its 192 countries was analysed to show the ranking of West African countries. The web presence of various tiers of government, ministries as well as tertiary institutions and the organised private sector in Nigeria was investigated; to ascertain, the currency of information, interactivity and citizen involvement. Selected sample organizations were studied to determine if they had the minimum ICT infrastructure for e-business. In addition, the Nigerian government relevant policies were examined for adequacy and the statistics from the surveys was used to analyse the impact of e-governance. Based on international best practices, a list of imperative actions for achieving e-governance for improved services and productivity in Nigeria and similar developing countries is proffered. Keywords: e-governance, ICT, web presence, online presence, Internet and cloud computing. 1. INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the convergence of microelectronics, telecommunications and computer science. The advances in ICT have culminated in high speed Personal Computers (PCs), smart phones, Local Area Networks (LANs), Internet, cloud computing, etc. The Internet has changed how the world does business, education, research, production, etc. With the cloud computing technology, the Internet can enable businesses to compete on a global basis in a way that we could not have dreamt of several years ago. Clearly, this e-technology is driving the world economy but unfortunately, not everyone is benefiting. There is a growing split or digital divide, which breaks down along national, economic, educational and geographic lines. Today no business, whether big or small, can afford to be indifferent to this e-technology. The use of the Internet and WWW technology has turned the world to a global village and a knowledge economy. The future of any country now depends on how fast and how well she can employ Internet technology. Thus, e-governance has become critical and imperative for sustainable economic development of any nation. Many countries have put in place appropriate ICT infrastructure and adopted e-governance. By definition, e-government is the use of Information and Communication Technology in delivering government services. The major benefits of e-government include improved efficiency, increase in transparency and accountability, faster access to government services, lower costs of administrative services and reduced corruption [Kamar & Ongo ndo, 27]. Presently, true democracy and good governance is characterized by participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus, equity, efficiency, accountability and strategic vision; all these are easily facilitated by ICT [Adeyemo, 211; UNDP 27]. With the ever increasing advances in microelectronics which is fuelling advances in ICT, the future for e-governance is still evolving, as governments and citizens of advanced and emerging economies experiment with and learns to exploit new media and the new information technologies [Rogers, 21]. This is not the case with many developing countries in Africa, where many have just managed to meet the minimal e-government requirements of having a website and an e-mail address. One of the reasons is that the initial cost of investing in e-governance is competing with other needs such as; water, rural health, basic education services, power, shelter, etc. This situation is worse in countries with large population or a large land area [UN E-Government 1

Survey, 212] as is the case of Nigeria. This should not deter us from implementing e-governance as when done, the benefits would help leapfrog the country to join the league of wealthy nations. This paper presents the e-government evolution and the United Nations 4- stage model framework for benchmarking the various stages of e-government services of countries. The web presence of various tiers of government, ministries, tertiary and secondary institutions and the organised private sector in Nigeria is investigated to ascertain, the currency of information, interactivity and citizen involvement. The statistics from the surveys was used to examine the impact of e- government. 2. E-GOVERNMENT EVOLUTION E-Government is the use of ICT, and particularly the Internet, as a platform for exchanging information, providing services and transacting with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government [UN E-Government Survey, 28]. E-Government emerged in the late 199s, but the history of computing in government organizations can be traced back to the 197s [Horan, 24]. Then the focus was on office automation, later the advances in microelectronics and telecoms, led to the emergence of Internet, cloud computing, social networks, wikis, etc. The Internet and WWW technologies facilitated online businesses (e-business & e-commerce) in an unimaginable way. This e-business phenomenon produced a new set of billionaire-entrepreneurs in a very short period; Amazon, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, etc. The successes of e-business subsequently motivated e-government. Initially, it started by government entities having websites, however, many of these sites were poorly designed and not updated or monitored for quality information. As Internet penetration grew, many sites began to focus on delivering information and services to citizens and businesses. After mastering this information dissemination aspect, government units moved towards processing online transactions. Subsequently, it progressed to online participation, whereby citizens can connect with public administrators, decision-makers and perhaps elected officials. 2.1 E-GOVERNMENT MODELS AND STAGES FOR DEVELOPMENT As e-government continues to evolve, the following relationship models have been identified: Government-to-Citizen (G2C) for making information accessible to citizens online; Government-to-Business (G2B) for procurement of goods & services from private companies; Government-to-Employee (G2E) for coordination of internal operations & improvement of efficiency of business processes; Government-to-Government (G2G) for provision of services to governments through intergovernmental relations [Adeyemo, 211]. With the various combinations of these relationship models, United Nations has proposed a 4 - stage framework for benchmarking e-government services of countries (Fig 1.). Stage 1 - Emerging presence Few static websites with basic info on services, hours of operation, contact phones or emails. Visitors access info and download documents. Stage 2 - Enhanced presence More official websites with dynamic & specialised content that is frequently updated. Interaction is still unidirectional from government to citizens. Stage 3 - Transactional presence Increase in number of websites with inclusion of interactive mode. Introduction of Web portals with a wide variety of services, e- voting, job applications, etc. Stage 4 - Connected presence Gov. ministries operate with fully integrated Iinfrastructure and centralised database. Performance & quality of service is measured with software to enhance user experience. Web 2. features such as blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds integrated for info sharing & collaboration. Fig 1.: E-Government 4 - Stage Framework Model for Development. 2

Any country s E-Government services can evolve from Stage 1, static website with basic information to the Stage 4 - Connected stage, where a country has web pages for all its organs properly integrated to an interactive web portal. This Framework and stipulated benchmarks are to encourage use of e-governance for development since the resources and capabilities of governments vary considerably. 3. GLOBAL TRENDS IN E-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT Evidence has shown that E-government programmes boost productivity in areas such as entrepreneurship, innovation, research and development, distance learning, e-health, e-agriculture, e-trade and other fields. Adoption of e-government has become imperative for all countries. The United Nations has published 24, 25, 28, 21 and 212 global survey of e-government readiness index of its 192 countries. The e-government readiness index is a composite measurement of the capacity and willingness of countries to use e-government for ICT-led development. By ranking the performance of countries on a relative scale, the index provides a valuable input for policy making and agenda setting for the future and serves as a benchmarking tool for monitoring progress. The e-government readiness index is calculated from the Web Measure Index (Online Presence Index), the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index and the Human Capital Index. The Web measure index is based upon the four-stage model described earlier and countries are ranked according to what they provide online. The Telecommunications infrastructure index is a composite weighted average index of six primary indices based on basic infrastructural indicators, which define a country s ICT infrastructure capacity. These are: PC s/1 persons; Internet users/1 persons; telephone lines/1 persons; online population; mobile phones/1 persons; and TV s/1 persons. While the Human capital index is calculated from the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio. The United Nations E-Government Surveys were studied and highlights of the latest survey done in 212 are presented in this section. Nigeria has.268 e-government index and ranks 163 out of 192 countries [UN E-Government Survey, 212]. Fig 2 shows the top 2 e-government development leaders in 212. The Republic of Korea is the world leader (.9283), followed by the Netherlands (.9125), the United Kingdom (.896) and Denmark (.8889), with the United States, Canada, France, Norway, Singapore and Sweden following closely behind. All the 2 countries have invested considerable resources in e-government in the last few years. They have expanded infrastructure and human skills on which to build further advances in service delivery and employed the full potential of Information Technologies for long-term sustainable development..95.9.85.8.75.7 E-Government Development Index for Top 2 countries Fig 2.: Top 2 E-Government Development Leaders. Some of the developing countries have found ways to leapfrog traditional development cycles by deploying mobile technology for bridging the digital divide. They have reoriented their public sector 3

governance systems towards user-centric approaches visible on their websites through multichannel service delivery features. On a regional level, Africa is ranked list. The digital divide is rooted in the lack of e-infrastructure, which has hindered information-use and knowledge-creation. The indices for Western African countries are compared in Fig 3.. From the study, it was observed that countries in West Africa with sub-regional average of.217are still far below the world average of.488. 212 E-Gov. Dev. Index for West African Countries.5.4.3.2.1.43.316.269.268.267.258.241.214.26.2.195.156.112 Fig 3.: E-Government index of countries in Western Africa. 4. METHODOLOGY- ONLINE PRESENCE SURVEY OF NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS The UN online presence index methodology was adopted in collecting data for the online presence of various states, ministries, tertiary institutions and private businesses. A questionnaire on the various stages of the E-Government Framework Model for development was created and this was used to conduct the survey. The questionnaire was designed to test for four stages of the e-government framework. For the first stage: the following were checked: essential information content, web friendliness (easy to locate and navigate). For the second stage, the following were checked: downloadable documents, newsletters, reports and databases, currency and usefulness of information on the site. Access to other web pages from the site and number of web pages were also investigated. For the third stage, interactivity was investigated by seeking information from the site and sending request while the time taken to respond was used as yardstick for scoring the site. Also links for online payment options were checked under this stage. For the fourth stage, the following features were investigated: the presence of a forum for discussions (blogs), response to emails, available help features and language translation. The online index was calculated from the survey for all the Federal Ministries, Local Government Areas, States and tertiary institutions. In addition, the survey of selected businesses in various diverse areas such as construction, manufacturing, finance, oil and gas and telecommunication sectors were all investigated. 5. RESULTS STATE GOVERNMENT The result of the survey carried out on states was categorized into the various geopolitical zones in the country. The states in the south were observed to have up to the stage two of the framework model. Most of them had the feature for transactions but were either inactive at the time of the survey or temporarily suspended. At the time of the survey, none of the states has gotten to stage four, whereby there is online forum for citizens to interact with the government and provide contributions to policy. 4

ONLINE INDEX Kwara F.C.T Kogi Nassar Plateau Niger Benue Adama Yobe Taraba Bauchi Gombe Borno Kaduna Kano Kebbi Jigawa Katsina Sokoto Zamfara Akwa- Bayelsa Cross- Delta Edo Rivers Ekiti Lagos Ogun Ondo Osun Oyo Online index Online index Abia Anambr a Enugu Imo Ebonyi For ease of documentation the Federal Capital Territory was categorized in North Central. It was observed that most of the states in the north had websites, but most of the information on the sites was outdated. Only 5% had up to date information on their websites and as such up to.5 index showing that half of them had reached stage two of the framework model for e-governance. Kwara State had the highest index of.625 indicating that it got to the stage three of the model..6.4.2 South-South.6.4.2 South-West.6.4.2 South-East States States States 1.5 North-Central.6.4.2 North-East.6.4.2 North-West States States States Fig. 4.: Online index for states in six geo-political zones in Nigeria. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS In Nigeria, there are 774 local government areas (LGAs). From the survey conducted only 29 local governments had an index of.5, equivalent to stage two of the model. All these LGAs were in Akwa-Ibom State. Thus, only about 3.7% of the LGAs have commenced e-governance. FEDERAL MINISTRIES As at the time of survey, the thirty ministries investigated all were up to stage two (Fig 5.). They had features that made it easy to ask questions and get responses from the ministries. There were no direct means of electronic payments in most of ministries and no forum for citizens feedback..8.6.4.2 FEDERAL MINISTRIES Fig. 5.: Online index for Federal Ministries. 5

Ajayi Crowther Uni. Al Hikmah Uni. America Uni. Babcock Uni. Benson Idahosa Uni. Caritas Uni. Oduduwa Uni Pan Atlantic Uni. Achievers Uni. Adeleke Uni. Afe Babalola Uni. Baze Uni. Bells Uni. of Tech. Bingham Uni. Bowen Uni. Covenant Uni. Crawford Uni. Crescent Uni. Elizade Uni. Evangel Uni. Godfrey Okoye Uni. Gregory Uni. Igbinedion Uni. Joseph Ayo Landmark Uni. Lead City Uni. Madonna Uni. McPherson Uni. Nigeria Turkish Novena Uni. Paul Uni. Redeemers Uni. Renaissance Uni. Rhema Uni. Salem Uni. Samuel Tansian Uni. Uni. of Mkar Veritas Uni. Western Delta Uni. Caleb Uni. Fountain Uni. Southern Uni. Wellspring Uni. Wesley Uni. Niger Delta Uni. Ondo State UST I. B. B. Uni. Abia State Uni. Adamawa State Adekunle Ambrose Ali Uni. Benue State Uni. Bukar Abba Cross River Ebonyi State Uni. Ekiti State Uni. Evan Enwerem Gombe State Uni. Kaduna State Uni. Kogi State Uni. Kwara State Uni. Lagos State Uni. Nasarawa State Northwest Uni. Olabisi Osun State Uni. Sokoto State Uni. Tai Solarin Uni. Taraba State Uni. Umaru Musa Kano UST Kastina Uni. Kebbi State UST Kwararrafa Uni. Ladoke Akintola RSUST. ESUT Delta State Uni. Ignatius Ajuru Akwa Ibom Bauchi State Uni. Plateau State Uni. Yobe State Uni. FED OYEEKITI FED - LAFIA UNIBEN ATBU ABU, ZARIA BAYERO, KANO FED FED NDUFU FED OTUOKE FED - KASHERE FED - LOKOJA FED WUKARI NDA NPA KANO OAU, ILE IFE UNICAL UNILORIN UNIJOS UNILAG UNIMAID UNN UNIPORT UNIUYO UDU, SOKOTO FUNAAB UNIAGRIC, UNIAGRIC, FUPRE FUT, MINNA FUTA FUTO MAUTY FED DUTSE UNIZIK, AKWA UI UNIABUJA Online index TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS As a result of the large number of institutions some selected few institutions were surveyed and their index plotted in Fig 6.. They were categorized into federal universities, state universities and private universities..8.6.4.2 Fed. Universities Fig. 6.: Online index for Federal Universities. The results in Fig 6. reveal that out of the 36 federal universities surveyed only one had no online presence which is equivalent to 2.7%. Only three of them are below the stage two of the model. The result for the state universities is shown in Fig.6.1. It revealed that for state universities out of the 4 state universities surveyed four (4) do not have any form of online presence while majority of the universities have reached the stage two of online presence where relevant information and available data are provided on their websites. The full online transactions, in some schools, are yet to be achieved where online payments and transfers can be made without physically going to financial institutions. Also forums for interactions between school administrations and students were not yet available in these websites..7.6.5.4.3.2.1 Fig. 6.1: State Universities. State Univerities.7.6.5.4.3.2.1 Private Universities Fig 6.2: Private Universities Online index. 6

Fig 6.2 gives the online index of some private universities. It was observed that more of private universities have drifted towards the third stage of online presence as against few in federal and state universities. Other tertiary institutions surveyed are 33 federal and state polytechnics and 31 colleges of education, their results are as shown in the Fig 7. and 8. respectively. 3 polytechnics (9%) do not have online presence while 29% of the colleges of education do not have an online presence. The dispersion of the various stages in the colleges of education is greatest when compared to the polytechnics and universities..7.6.5.4.3.2.1 Polytechnics Fig 7.: Polytechnics online index..6.5.4.3.2.1 Fig. 8.: Colleges of Education online index. Colleges of Education (CoE) Of the 14 public tertiary institutions surveyed 9% are tending towards stage 3, 64% of the tertiary institutions have achieved up to stage 2 of the model. 15% were found to still be at stage 1 and 12% had no web presence. SURVEY OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS Out of the 24 Federal Government Colleges surveyed only five (2.8%) had a stage one level of online presence index of an average of.3. While for the Government Secondary Schools, out of 13 schools surveyed only 2 (1.9%) had a stage one online presence. In all, only 6% of the secondary schools had any form of online presence. SURVEY OF BUSINESSES- FINANCE SECTOR Microfinance and other banks were investigated. Of the 87 microfinance banks, 16% of them had online presence. All the other 24 banks had online presence that were in stage two and above of the model and their index is as shown in Fig 9.. 7

Guinness FMCG DHLLogistics ECOWAS Ericsson Nigeria FIRS Government APCON Arik Air Aviation Brit. Ame.Tob. CBN Banking Channels Chi Farms FMCG CocaCola FMCG Consolidated Cool FM Media Corporate Affair Dangote FMCG EKO Hotel Fan Milk FMCG P&G Mult. 7up Bottling Accenture AIT Media Akintola FAAN Flour Mills Friesland Foods GlaxoSmithKline Honeywell Flour IBMTechnology Conoil Eni (Saipem) NLNG Shell Pet. Dev. Comp. (SPDC) Addax Baker Hughes Chevron Halliburton Energy ExxonMobil NestOil Group NNPC Oando Sahara Energy Schlumberger Seplat Petroleum.7.65.6.55.5 Banks Fig. 9: Online index of banks. OIL AND GAS Fig 9. below shows the ranking of various oil and gas companies in the country. All of whom have long cashed into the web benefits as they are all on stage 2 and above..7.65.6.55.5 Oil and Gas Companies Fig. 1.: Oil and Gas companies online index. MULTINATIONALS AND GOVERNMENT PARASTATALS Of the 64 multinationals and government parastatals that were surveyed only 3 of them were shown in the Fig. 11.. All the 64 organizations had online presence above stage 2 of the model. In all the business units surveyed it was observed that the customer satisfaction forum was not present in most of the websites. 1.8.6.4.2 Multinationals and others. Fig. 11.: Multinationals and Government Parastatals online index. TELECOMMUNICATION Similar to all the businesses investigated all the telecommunication service providers in the country had advanced to stage 3 of the model as shown in Fig. 12. 8

Online presence % 1.5.67.67.67.67 Airtel Nig.Telecom. Mult. Etisalat Nig. Telecom. Mult. Glo Telecom. Mult. MTNTelecom Mult.. Fig. 12.: Telecommunication companies online index. NATIONAL WEBSITES A comparison was made of the Nigerian website with other African and developed countries websites. The Fig 13. shows details of this comparison. 1.5 1.5 1.875.75.75.5 REP. OF KOREA USA FED. REP. OF NIG. REP.OF GHANA REP. OF SENEGAL Fig. 13.: Comparing Nigeria s national website s online index with other countries. Among the African countries surveyed Nigeria had the same level of online presence as Ghana. Both happen to have progressed to stage three but were yet to fully achieve all the features of that phase, while Senegal achieved a stage two level on the model. When compared to other non- African countries, the USA website had reached the stage four but was not as user friendly as the Korean site. The Korean site had links to all its ministries websites, it also had an online blog for citizens to comment on policies, these comments though censored were made public to any online user. These features show the stage four level of the model, where both payments and comments from citizens can be responded to by the government. ONLINE PRESENCE IN NIGERIA COMPARED WITH OTHER NATIONS A summary was made of the web presence of states, ministries, tertiary institutions and secondary schools in five countries and the results presented in Fig 14.. 12% 1% 8% 6% 4% 2% % Countries Nigeria Senegal ghana usa Korea region/states 89% % % 1% 1% ministries 1% 58% 46% 1% 1% public uni 93% 1% 1% 1% 1% sec. sch. 6% 6% 1% region/states ministries public uni sec. sch. Fig. 14.: Comparing online presence of various countries. From the survey it was observed that in Nigeria, out of all the 36 states only 89% of them had any form of online presence and all ministries had web presence. 93% of public universities had web presence while only 6% of secondary schools had a website. Comparing African countries, Nigerian ministries and universities had a higher level of e-presence on the average, but fell short when compared to countries like USA and Korea. In USA all the 5 states, 4 ministries, 12 9

public universities and 46 secondary schools (high schools) surveyed, all had online presence up to stage three on the model. This was similar to the case of Korea. 6. DISCUSSION Although, many government organs are enthusiastic about e-government, it still remains a challenge for them to implement e-government services. This is because of several reasons; one of which is that because of scarce financial resources, expenditure on provision of safe water, rural health and basic educational services are usually preferred to that of ICT infrastructure. Another reason is the fear that the project may fail, because many ICT projects fail, even in developed countries. Nevertheless, there are many more successful e-government projects to learn lessons from. Another obstacle is that human beings resist change, deployment of e-government involves taking computer-based technologies and combining them with human-based administrative processes to create new ways of serving the citizens. This requires learning and changing the usual way of working, this is difficult for the ageing population in government offices who are not computer literate. This situation arose because of the government embargo on employment for many years. From the UN surveys, 24-212, Nigeria was in Stage 1- Emerging Presence, and ranked 163 out of 192 countries. Fortunately, a lot has happened since that UN survey; publication of Nigerian National ICT Policy, establishment of Ministry of Communication Technology, publication of the Broadband Plan, 213-218 and many other government ICT initiatives. The result of this work revealed that the above initiatives have yielded some improvement. The survey showed that all the Nigerian Federal ministries have reached stage 2 and above, while 11% of the states are yet to key into e-governance. Of the 774 LGAs, only 3.7% of them are online. This situation can be reversed; the LGAs have to be pulled on board, because they have key roles to play in providing grass-root information on basic items such as: numbering of houses, taxes on shops, cleaning and maintenance of roads, healthcare, primary and adult education, birth, death and marriage certificates. An examination of the Nigerian National ICT Policy (212) and the National Broadband Plan, 213-218 showed that these two documents addressed comprehensively needed requirements for use of ICT for sustainable development; all that is required is strict and honest implementation. 6.1 E-GOVERNANCE IMPACT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The future of Nigeria is very bright because there are several application areas for e-government that will yield profit and sustainable development such as payment of taxes, import duty, government fines, feedback from masses/stakeholders, etc. Few organisations (businesses) in Nigeria that adopted e-administration are reaping huge profits and delivering improved quality of service to their customers. This is evident in the survey conducted on businesses as 1% of the manufacturing industries investigated were above stage 2 of e-presence. The financial sector is another proof of the success of e-administration, as most banks offer e-services to their customers, have integrated their ICT infrastructure so that transaction can be done physically from any bank branch. This is in addition to integration of ATM facilities of various banks so that customers can withdraw from any ATM, irrelevant of their bank. Thus, e-governance and ICT infrastructure has produced tremendous positive impact in banks and organised private sector. With the increasing adoption of e-administration in the tertiary institutions, the positive impact felt in the banks can be replicated in schools in the areas of improved teaching and learning, research and development, planning and projection, accountability and administration. Dramatic life changing benefits can be quickly realized if appropriate ICT infrastructure is provided in the school system at all levels. For sustainable economic development, there must be citizen feedback. From the study, Nigeria and many African countries websites are yet to provide this feature, thus information dissemination 1

is still one way, from government to citizens. Those in LGAs in rural areas and some towns do not even have the ICT infrastructure to access the websites. On a positive note, presently, application forms for government/organization s use can be filled online, reducing the cost of travel and risk of life, thus some of the benefits of e-governance such as reduction in cost of governance, equality of access to information, elimination of bureaucracy, efficient service delivery, are beginning to be realized in the country. At the time of the study, very few small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria have websites and as such cannot be reached by the international community for e-commerce; access to ICT infrastructure can boost such businesses with greater profits and more job creation. Undoubtedly, use of ICT is a super game changer; recommendations to improve the present scenario are proffered in the following section. 7. RECOMMENDATIONS AND THE IMPERATIVES FOR GOVERNMENT Having understood the world trend, the current state of e-governance in Nigeria and the challenges, the essential things that need to be put in place in order to accelerate e-government in Nigeria or other West African countries are pretty clear. Broadly speaking, there is a need to have a change of attitude, provide the necessary legislation to support e-governance, provide ICT infrastructure and its supporting elements, train manpower and then restructure the interaction between government agencies. Itemized below are imperative actions for successful deployment of e-government in Nigeria: i. Provision of affordable broadband infrastructure The recent FGN National Broadband plan is highly commended and implementation should be given top priority. We cannot achieve the aim of e-governance from present slow and expensive Internet access. Thus other affordable broadband infrastructure options should be explored and invested in, as this is an enabler for economic and social growth in a digital economy. ii. iii. iv. Proper financing of ICT The initial cost of ICT infrastructure is usually high; it must be put in the budget. It is also very important to budget for support and maintenance costs. The digital divide is rooted in the lack of e-infrastructure, which has hindered information-use and knowledge-creation. Appropriate staffing and establishment of ICT units in Organisations - The establishment of ICT departments in all ministries and parastatals at the Federal, State and Local government levels should be made mandatory. Provision of steady power supply Adequate power supply should be ensured for the nation and especially for the government agencies that operate e-government, e-health, e- education and e-commerce. Computers and networks need power to function. v. Use of Established System Development Practices - E-governance is an ICT project and many ICT projects fail because standard processes for System Development Life Cycle have not been followed. All government organs should have strategic plans and ICT Policies well aligned with organizational operations. vi. vii. Provision of a Secure Experience for Web Visitors - Any computer connected to the Internet is vulnerable to virus/worm infection or attack. All government ICT infrastructure must be regularly checked for information security standards compliance. This is in addition to having standard back-up and disaster recovery systems in place. Provision of Enabling Legislation The level of Cybercrime is alarming; Cybercrime bill in its advanced stage should be promulgated so that offenders will be punished accordingly. Adequate laws/directives should be made to ensure all government institution migrate to e- government on or before a given date. The government due process workflow and hierarchy should be reviewed and implemented in e-government applications. 11

viii. Greater interactivity with government officials and centralised database system - Government must increasingly begin to create channels for citizen feedback and interaction. This is in addition to placing greater emphasis on institutional linkages among the tiered government structures and acquisition of centralised databases and standards for interoperability to eliminate duplicate services. 8. CONCLUSION It cannot be disputed that e-governance is the right way to go. Nigeria and some other West African Countries have started moving towards this direction as seen from the study. The relevant organs of government in charge of ICT and e-governance are commended for what they have achieved so far. It is vital for Nigeria and other African countries to learn from global best practices and collaborate internationally to develop a harmonized framework with indigenous ICT. For Nigeria, there exists a digital divide within the country as seen from the survey conducted. The Federal Ministries and States have a stage two online presence while the LGAs are yet to commence e-governance. Most tertiary institutions have established web presence while secondary schools are yet to start. Similarly in the business sector, most multinationals and banks are enjoying the benefits of e-business while microfinance banks are yet to key into it. Nigeria s ranking and the digital divide can be improved and bridged respectively if the imperative actions recommended are given priority by all tiers of government. This will strengthen good governance with broad-based public participation, improve quality of life for the entire citizenry, create more job opportunities for the youth and crime will naturally reduce. REFERENCES Adeyemo, A. B., (211), E-government Implementation in Nigeria: An assessment of Nigeria's Global e-gov Ranking. Journal of Internet and Information System Vol. 2(1), pp. 11-19, January 211 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/jiis ISSN 1684 5315 211 Academic Journals. ÅkeGrönlund, Thomas A. Horan (24), Introducing e-gov: History, Definitions, And Issues, Claremont Graduate University, Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 24) 713-729. http://www.cips.org.in/public-sector-systems-governmentinnovations/documents/introducing_e_governance.pdf Kamar N, Ongo ndo M (27), Impact of e-government on Management and use of Government Information in Kenya, World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council, pp. 19-23 August 27, Durban, South Africa, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=1.1.1.15.927&rep=rep1&type=pdf Rogers W O Okot-Uma (21), Electronic Governance: Re-inventing Good Governance Commonwealth Secretariat London r.okot-uma@commonwealth.int article October 1, 213. http://tulcingodevalle.gob.mx/work/sites/elocal/resources/localcontent/1192/9/okot-uma.pdf UNDP (27) Governance for Sustainable Human Development, A UNDP Policy Paper.http://gis.emro.who.int/HealthSystemObservatory/Workshops/WorkshopDocuments/Referenc e%2reading%2material/literature%2on%2governance/govern~2.pdf UN E-Government Survey (28), From E-Government to Connected Governance, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Division for Public Administration and Development Management, ST/ESA/PAD/SER.E/112, New York, http://www.mtic.gov.md/img/news/29/12/e- Governement_Survey_28.pdf UN E-Government Survey (212), From E-Government to Connected Governance, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Division for Public Administration and Development Management, ST/ESA/PAD/SER.E/112, New York, http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan4865.pdf The National Information and Communication Technology Policy by Ministry Of Communication Technology, August 212, http://commtech.gov.ng/images/docs/approved_ict_policy.pdf. Nigeria s National Broadband Plan, 213 218, A submission by the Presidential Committee on Broadband, May 213, http://commtech.gov.ng/images/docs/the%2nigerian%2national%2broadband%2plan%221 3_19May213%2FINAL.pdf. 12