Abstract:
Effective penetration and utilization of ICT in the public service for high-end valueadding
operations in local government is crucial to enhance effective and efficient
services that satisfy the citizens and other stakeholders. ICT penetration and utilization
in the local government has not reached the levels necessary to reap the benefits of ICT
in service delivery. Effort must be made to identify the factors responsible for the slow
penetration and utilization of ICT in the local government and develop practical
solutions for improvement. This study sought to find out whether the institutional
management systems; ICT policy, regulation and strategy; managers' attitude, awareness
and skill and ICT resources affect ICT penetration and utilization and make
recommendations towards improvement in local authorities. Three councils were
purposively selected for this study. Stratified random sampling was employed to obtain
respondents within the councils. Eighty respondents were obtained with a ratio of
proportional allocation being used to allocate proportionate samples to the councils and
their departments based on the respective staff populations. An ICT penetration and
utilization index was developed based on a custom-made weighting. Pearson Moment of
Correlation Coefficient and test of statistical significance were used to compare the
strength of linear relationship between the index and the independent variables with
descriptive statistics being used to analyze the results.
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ICT penetration and utilization was found to have a significant linear relationship with
ICT resources, ICT awareness, attitude and skill as well as the level of education, age,
length of service and the job scale of staff. ICT policies and institutional management
systems were found to have no significant linear relationship with ICT penetration and
utilization. Great investment in ICT resources, ICT awareness, attitude and training as
well as better educated staff with the government playing its policy role effectively were
recommended towards improved ICT penetration and utilization in local authorities.
