E‑government and Technological Utopianism: Exploring Zambia’s Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This article presents an empirical study that was conducted in three towns (Lusaka, Livingstone and Kitwe) in Zambia to ascertain the awareness of citizens about the anticipated value that e‑government adds to public service provision. Awareness entails that citizens are able to identify the opportunities that e‑government has to offer in the delivery of public services. Using a Mixed Methods Research (MMR) approach, the study measured the perception of citizens on the overall e‑government agenda. Spearman’s rho was used to determine concurrent and construct validity of the data collection instruments. Restricted factor analysis with Kaiser Normalization identified eight predictor factors explaining 23 percent of the variance in the model indicating acceptance and/or awareness of e‑government applications. The results of the research indicate that with the likelihood of a majority of citizens aware of and utilising e‑government once it is globally rolled out, there are chances that e‑government may positively impact on the bureaucratic nature of government and ultimately improve public service delivery in Zambia. Further, this research suggests there are encouraging indications for effective development of e‑government in Zambia. The limitation of the study is that the sampled population may not be statistically representative of the general population in Zambia and therefore it is not possible to generalise the outcomes of this research.