Facilitating Better Governance Through E-Government Initiatives: Successful Cases in Sub-Saharan Africa

"Corrupt political elites in the developing world, working hand-in-hand with greedy business people and unscrupulous investors, are putting private gain before the welfare of citizens and the economic development of their countries,”[CNN, 2003]. National governments in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which is home to 33 of the 48 least developed countries of the world, are notorious for bribery and corruption. A running joke among residents in this region is whether Cameroon or Nigeria wins the distinction of most corrupt country. Both seem to be competing annually for first and second places in the rankings for the World’s most corrupt countries. E-Government is a possible approach to address such poor governance practices and to promote the use of information technologies (IT) for day-to-day governance and transparency. The World Bank defines E-government as, “the use by government agencies of information technologies that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government”[World Bank, 2005]. This study presents several successful E-government projects in sub-Saharan Africa. These successful projects lead us to propose that E-government initiatives hold possibilities for improved governance and increased participation in the democratic process. The model projects in this study serve as a reference for sub-Saharan African countries that desire to adopt Egovernment practices to address many undemocratic problems that plague the region. We trust our paper will serve as an impetus for the research community to consider investigating E-governance and other priority IS issues in sub-Saharan Africa; a region often omitted in mainstream IS research.