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The use of Information and communication technologies (ICT) to transform the existing relationship and interaction between government and its citizens and the provision of quality government public services is known as e-government. It is regarded as revolutionary phenomena that seek to ensure transparency, accountability, efficiency and customer-orientated government administration systems through the support of ICT (Bindu, Sankar, & Kumar, 2019). The application of ICT particularly the internet has changed and positively transformed the provision of traditional government services and is considered the most effective means to deliver public services to citizens and businesses (Al-Hujran, Al-Dalahmeh, & Aloudat, 2011; Ali, Weerakkody, & El-Haddadeh, 2009). The implementation of e-government provides benefits to both citizens and government in terms of better convenience and saving time, reduction in cost and promoting greater transparency of government agencies and efficiency in government performance (Almarabeh & AbuAli, 2010; Nguyen, 2016).
Ghana is among one of the many developing countries adopting the huge potential of ICT to transform and modernize the public administration processes of ministries, department and its agencies. The adoption of ICT by the government does not only seek to transform and modernize public administration processes but also to harness the potential of ICT to empower citizens, women and disabled and importantly to participate and create a society that is digitized. The main government agency responsible for the implementation of ICT and for that matter e-government in Ghana is the National Information Technology Agency (NITA). In terms of e-government, NITA is responsible for the development of e-government applications and government communications by developing IT architecture and interoperability standards for government applications and networks across ministries, municipalities, and assemblies (MMDS) (NITA, 2017). In 2001 the National Policy for Information Technology was formulated and later 2008 a National E-Government Infrastructure for Ghana was initiated which was founded through a concessionary loan facility to the Government of Ghana by the Chinese government (NITA, 2017).
In 2018, United Nations E-government Survey Ghana was ranked 101 from 120 in 2016 in the world with an E-government Development Index (EGDI) of 0.5390 (UNE-Government Survey, 2018). In terms of countries in Africa, Ghana is ranked 5th country with regard to its e-government development. The top leading e-government development country in Africa is Mauritius with an E-government Development Index (EGDI) of 0.6678 and ranked 66 in the world (UNE-Government Survey, 2018). But in West Africa sub-region, Ghana is the top country in terms of its e-government development and Cape Verde is second in the West Africa-sub region and ranked 112 in the world. Some e-government indicators reported by the United Nations E-government survey on Ghana’s e-government are online service index (OSI) (0.6944) Human Capacity Index (HCI) (0.5669) and Technology Infrastructure Index (TII) (0.3558).
A survey conducted in 182 government agencies in Ghana indicated that e-government resources are visibly available and it is being utilized to facilitate e-government activities between and among government agencies (Adu, Patrick, Park, & Adjei, 2018). Another study which examined e-government implementation and adoption in Ghana revealed that through e-government strategy of the government, citizens and business can access and pay for services like a renewal of a driving license, business registration, payment of taxes, marriage and birth registration as result of the e-services and e-payment portal (Mensah, 2015). Despite these positive outcomes of e-government in Ghana, Adu et al. (2018) indicated that government agencies are still fronted with some major challenges such as infrastructure, economic and legal issues and human resources in the development of e-government.