No abstract

countries has been hailed as a major step toward a solution to the problem of the underdevelopment of many of them. Obstacles such as corruption, delays in service delivery, lack of public sector accountability, and so on, can, many believe, be overcome with ICT: particularly, the Internet and cell or mobile phones. Furthermore, ICT is seen as "offering an unprecedented opportunity to overcome existing social divisions and inequalities" (Selwyn 2004: 342) in all societies, and especially developing countries. Digital or e-government will thus provide governments with an effective and efficient channel to facilitate their internal administrations and improve their external services, thereby increasing transparency and generating a higher degree of trust (Ofosu-Adarkwa and Ohemeng 2012).Digital or e-government can enhance information flows in the public sector, and encourage active, as well as effective, public participation by citizens, especially in policy making. Such participation is a valuable tool for building trust -which is a fundamental ethical value in public administration, and which in turn enhances government-citizen relations by identifying, assessing and, thus, satisfying public needs, while repairing recently badly eroded public trust in government and its institutions.A major problem with ICT, however, is that of what has been described as the digital divide: the gap between the Internet literacy, and perhaps aptitude for it, of the citizens, households, businesses and geographic areas at certain socioeconomic levels and those of the same people and entities at others. The problem is more serious in underdeveloped countries (Avgerou and Madon 2005;Brooks et al. 2005; Selwyn 2004). To address it, a number of countries have developed or are developing policies designed to reduce this gap so as to ensure -2 -that all, or at least a greater number, of their citizens benefit from ICT. Ghana is one such country. The government there has developed a policy to this effect. The essence of this paper is, therefore, to examine that policy by considering: the local definition of the digital divide; the steps that are being taken to heal it; the implied challenges, if any, facing the government; and how it can address those challenges.The approach was threefold. First we reviewed the literature that discusses the concept, the implications, and the importance of the digital divide in general and, specifically, for developing countries. Second was a careful examination of the policy content in its present form, necessary because the policy is presently still at the discussion stage. The final step was an indepth interview with some policy makers, ICT experts, and some stakeholders, in order to understand the challenges confronting the government in this area, and determine whether the policy can address the problem. We undertook an elite interview in view of the nature of the policy and widespread ignorance about the digital divide. Interviewees were selected according to the purposive sampling technique.The p...

This paper attempts to examine Ghana's quest to use ICT as a tool to enhance transparency and build public trust in government. The questions the paper attempts to answer are: what are the main challenges confronting the government's e-governance initiative as a tool to ensure transparency and citizens' trust in the public sector? What steps are being taken to address these challenges? We argue that while Ghana seems to have made remarkable progress in this endeavour, it still faces a number of significant obstacles, which must be addressed if the objectives of its e-governance project are to be fully realized. Key challenges include infrastructure development for the growth of ICT, the huge gap in access to ICT (or what may be described as the digital divide), and the change in organizational culture to enhance easy accessibility to public documents.