Zambia has been implementing e-government model of government for close to 3 years now. This is because e-government has been identified and adopted as one of the most efficient vehicles for appropriate, transparent and inclusive / participatory decision making. Zambia has shown a higher propensity to indigenous knowledge systems which are full of inefficiencies, a lot of red tape in public service delivery, and prone to corrupt and inefficient practices. The adoption of e-Governance promises a sharp paradigm shift where public institutions will be more responsive and transparent, promote efficient Public Private Partnerships (PPP), and empower citizens by making knowledge and other resources more directly accessible. This paper has examined two cases from Zambia where ICT has been utilized in support of e-government initiatives. It has also assessed the challenges, opportunities, and issues together with e-government adoption criteria regarding successful encapsulation of e-government into the Zambian contextual environment. It has been found that lack of adequate ICT infrastructure and political will, provision of content in English other than local languages, lack of proper change management procedures, noncontextualization of e-government practices, etc., contribute much to the delay in appropriate e-government adoption in Zambia. Out of these challenges identified, the paper proposes a conceptual model which offers balanced e-government adoption criteria involving a combination of electronic and participatory services. The proposed conceptual model is a start-point for a model which can later be replicated to include the whole lot of Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries given the similarity in the contextual environment.

Over the past two decades, e-learning has become an increasingly important field of study that has attracted scholarly and policy makers’ attention. Many developing nations have embraced e-learning as a tool to enhance accessilibility and affordability of higher education. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, many universities across the world were forced to embrace online teachning and learning to circumvent lockdowns, social distancing and other public health interventions put in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Consequently, this study sought to establish students’ experiences with the e-learning mode during the COVID-19 lockdown in Namibia. The paper discusses the results of an online survey of 137 undergraduate students about their experiences using e-learning technologies during the COVID-19-induced university closures. An online survey instrument was created on Google forms and a link distributed to students through WhatsApp class groups. Quantitative data were presented through frequency tables and figures, whilst we adopted thematic content analysis to analyse qualitative data. The results of the survey indicate that mobile devices remained the primary computing device used to access academic information. An analysis of the study results led to the emergence of five themes, viz, e-learning system accessibility, e-learning platform layout, resources to access Internet and network, isolation and home environment that captured student challenges with online classes. This paper argues that e-learning is still faced by a myriad of challenges that need to be addressed if it has to be a success. Furthermore, we advance the argument for mobile learning as a viable option for Africa due to the ubuiquity of mobile devices.

Increasingly, public sector organizations are implementing records management systems with a view of improving service delivery. However, adoption and use of these systems has been found to be wanting. This study investigated the factors that influence the adoption and usage of a Document Workflow Management System at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Botswana using a modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a theoretical lens. The study adopted a survey research design hinged on a positivist approach. A questionnaire, with both open and closed-ended questions, was administered to all 61 Action Officers (with response rate of 87%) who were the key users of the system. The findings of the study indicate that the four major UTAUT constructs accounted for 55% of the variance in explaining behavioural intention to adopt and use the Document Workflow Management System. The study found technophobia, negative attitudes to system use, perceived system complexity and incompatibility with existing information systems as key factors contributing to low adoption and usage of the system. The study proposes a conceptual adoption framework that may be used to guide research and practice in similar contexts.

Purpose – Public sector organisations in the developing world contexts have hugely invested in procuring information management systems such as the electronic document and records management system (EDRMS). The procurement and implementation of these systems come at a huge cost to taxpayers. Unfortunately, most of these systems remain white elephants due to reluctance by the anticipated users to adopt and use them in their information management endeavours. This study aims to understand Action Officers’ perceptions of, adoption and/or usage of the document workflow management system (DWMS) at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Botswana. The DWMS is one type of EDRMS. Design/methodology/approach – The survey uses a questionnaire distributed in Gaborone, Botswana to gather data on the perceptions of anticipated users of the DWMS. The study used a modified form of UTAUT as a theoretical lens to explore user’s perception on the adoption and use of DWMS at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Botswana. The population of the study was 68. A total of 53 (86.89 per cent) out of 61 users of DWMS were purposively sampled and responded to the questionnaire. The rest took part in interviews. Findings – Negative attitudes to computers, computer anxiety, the complexity of DWMS and its incompatibility to current working practices influences Action and Records Officers’ unwillingness to adopt and use the DWMS. Research limitations/implications – This study was limited to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI)’s Department of Corporate Services, so its findings cannot be statistically generalized to the MTI as a whole. Another limitation relates to the secretive nature of staff in some government departments which lead them to provide partial information related to the study. Finally, the additional technology adoption factors discovered from interviews (i.e. computer anxiety, incompatibility of DWMS to current work practices, negative attitudes to system use and complexity of the system) have not been empirically tested to ascertain their validity. This provides an opportunity for a future study to empirically test the said additional factors. Practical implications – To mitigate the lower DWMS adoption and usage, robust change management and communication were identified as some of the critical factors that should be considered. The identified factors may be used in drafting a model to aid the implementation of DWMS in Botswana or in a contextually similar environment in the developing world. Originality/value – This study provides empirical evidence from an original study.

No abstract

Purpose – The article aims to investigate the potential of successfully implementing e-government in Zambia by considering citizens ' and businesses ' perceptions on e-government. Further, the study investigates what interventions have been put in place to encourage e-government development. The motivation of the study is that despite huge investments in e-government, there has been relatively slow adoption rendering the said interventions not to culminate into meaningful socio-economic value prepositions. Design/methodology/approach – Using the mixed methods research (MMR) approach, the study intends to identify factors influencing the adoption of e-government solutions in Zambia both at the individual and organizational level. The questionnaire utilized in this research is informed by the technology acceptance model (TAM) as well as the institutional theory and the Giddens ' structuration theory. Spearman ' s ρ was used to determine concurrent and construct validity of the data collection instruments. Findings – The study posits that a lot needs to be done if e-government were to succeed in Zambia. A majority of the research respondents are not aware of e-government implementation in Zambia. It is desirable that e-government should be implemented with due reference to local contextual characteristics. If factors negatively influencing e-government growth in Zambia are addressed, the prospects for e-government ' s contribution to revitalizing the public service are high. Research limitations/implications – Since the empirical component of this study did not cover all the nine provinces of Zambia and utilised a limited sample size of 411, the findings may not be truly representative of the situation on the ground. However, the study provides insights on what factors may influence successful implementation of e-government in Zambia. The paper recommends that further empirical study with a larger and more representative sample should be done in order for the findings to command higher statistical relevance. Practical implications – The identified factors may act as pointers to decision makers ' endeavours to design context-aware e-government interventions. This is very important to reduce failure incidences of e-government interventions considering huge costs incurred mostly using tax payers ' money. Further, study findings may be used to inform strategies for effervescent e-government development in Zambia by outlining desired interventions and anticipated adoption levels by the citizenry (supply versus demand). Originality/value – Very limited studies have focused on understanding e-government development in Zambia especially from individuals ' perspective. Most studies have attempted to understand the e-government development at a global level. This study, however, highlights factors that influence e-government proliferation at both the macro and micro levels of the socio-economic hierarchy in Zambia.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess e-readiness (preparedness) of the Copperbelt University (CBU) with a view to ascertain the likelihood of the university benefiting from various opportunities unlocked by the adoption and use of ICT in advancing its core mandate of teaching, learning and collaborative research. Design/methodology/approach The study used the network readiness model emanating from the socio-technical theory, which underpins the extended technological enactment framework. Further, it employed a positivist approach and adopted a case study method coupled with methodological triangulation at data collection stage. With a 95 per cent confidence level of a possible sample frame of 2,980, the study sampled 353 respondents with a response rate of 81 per cent. Findings The results show that anticipated ICTs users have not leveraged available ICT infrastructure or are unaware of its existence. Further, quantitative constructs: “accessibility to ICTs” and “requisite ICTs skills” has significant impacts on e-readiness indicators and in integration of ICTs in CBU core business activities. Also, the study argues that institutional ICT policy and working environments reshape users’ perception of ICTs for teaching, learning and research. Research limitations/implications The proposed conceptual framework only accounted for 43 per cent variance of the factors determining e-readiness of CBU. Originality/value Investigating CBU’s e-readiness will enable policy-makers to prioritise interventions needed for transforming the university into an e-ready entity favourably placed to benefit from digital opportunities. Also the emanating conceptual framework is important to theory and practice in integrating ICTs universities business value chains especially in contextually similar environments.

The introduction of mobile money systems in emerging economies has enabled the would-be unbanked population to gain access to financial services. The number of mobile money users and value of transactions is on the increase. This rapid growth of mobile money services and value transactions in emerging economies is attributed to the light-touch regulatory framework which allows minimal limitations on who should operate mobile money system and few restrictions on who can function as an agent. These increases both in services and transactions indicate that mobile money systems hold a lot of valuable customer financial information that needs to be jealously protected against information breaches and abuse by the various stakeholders in the mobile money ecosystem.Taking an interpretive qualitative approach, Activity Theory (AT) has been used to analyse the mobile money management activities focusing on information security policies, regulations and procedures. In order to comprehend the aspects revealed by the Activity Theory analysis that raise information security management concerns in mobile money operations, Mobile Network Operator (MNO) management issues, in terms of the security of mobile money operations, are detailed.Our findings look at the reasons given by various stakeholders for information security management gaps in mobile money operations in emerging economies. Our findings disclose the roles of MNO staff, who are not information security experts, in the development and compliance monitoring of policies, regulations and procedures related to the safety of financial information in mobile money systems.