Challenges of e-government in African countries: Creating an enabling environment in Nigeria

E-government refers to the government's use of ICT tools particularly web-based internet applications to enhance the access to and delivery of government information and service to citizens, businesses and arms of government. E-governance has emerged as a viable means to address development issues and challenges because citizens find empowerment through access to information. Emerging developing economies such as Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia have embarked upon e-government initiatives so as to provide a just, fair and equitable governance environment to the governed and they have achieved tremendous success also. However, African countries particularly Western African nations namely Nigeria has lagged far behind. In addition to presenting the concept and an outline of e-governance, the paper compares implementation of e-government in top ranking developing countries with that of African countries, particularly Nigeria with the aim of developing a road map for the speedy implementation of e-government in Nigeria.