UGANDA TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH METHODS
NAME: LUKAAGA FRED
REG NO. SEP20BIST/086U.
CONCEPT PAPER WRITING.
“Leveraging on the available ICT tools to transform from physical governance to e-Governance
by the government of Uganda.”
Introduction
Many countries in the western world have fully taken use of the available ICT tools on the
market to transform their governance from physical to e-Governance and this has yielded diverse
results and the effectiveness and efficiency of their governments has rampantly increased thereby
producing a manifold of different dimensions of growth and development. E-Governance is
described as the use by the public sector of ICTs to improve delivery of information and
services, encourage participatory decision making among citizens, “and make the government
more accountable, transparent and effective” (UNESCO,2005).
UNESCO categorizes them a long three fronts: those championing informing of the citizenry,
those spearheading improved service delivery, and those leveraging citizen participation
(UNESCO, 2005). From what may be seen as the more technical perspective, e-Governance is
categorized into four dimensions (Baguma, 2006): e-Administration which entails e-Governance
relying on networked management information systems in form of wide area networks, local area
networks and the web, to spur information exchange and service delivery; e-Citizen in which
government and citizens consult one another online to effect service delivery and accountability;
e-Services, through which (say) employment information is relayed to the masses, and voting,
legislation, and application for visas among others are done electronically; and e-Society where
nearly all the above, including e-learning, are fully deployed in a given society. This study will
therefore help to show how the Ugandan government can take use of the ICT tools and ease
service delivery to Ugandans.
Need for the study.
The purpose of this paper thus is to establish the extent to which the Ugandan citizenry uses
ICTs to accesses public services, including determination of the e-Governance dimension that
dominates. The paper is motivated by the high premium discourse places on investment in ICTs
for e-Governance with potential benefits ranging from efficient public management, empowering
citizen to participation in decision making through access to vital or necessary information,
enabling government to deliver services to the people more conveniently, among others
(UNESCO; Baguma, 2006; Magara, 2009; World Bank and African Development Bank, 2012).
Background
Several studies have produced different findings and most of them have given these findings
depending on sectorial basis, however, prior to the sector by sector analysis, it was considered
necessary to highlight what literature presents as far as the status of efforts to promote e-
Governance in Uganda is concerned. Hence the status of the country’s policy and regulatory
framework, and the state of infrastructure for e-Governance are presented first.
First, a fully-fledged Ministry of Information and Communications Technology ( MoICT ) was
formed in 2006, to, among others: provide leadership at the strategic level, overall coordination,
advocacy, and support on matters of ICT (Ministry of ICT, n.d.). This move was envisioned to
be critical in breeding e-Governance. Secondly, the National Information Technology Authority
Uganda (NITA-U) was formed in 2009 courtesy of an Act of Parliament. Besides, a number of
laws exist to enable and regulate ICT investments and usage. Some of them are: The Cyber laws
(Tentena, 2012) which include the Electronic Transactions Act (Act 8) (Uganda, 2011), The
Electronic Signatures Act (Act 7) (Uganda, 2011), and The Computer Misuse Act (Act 2) of
2011 (Uganda, 2011). Others include, The Regulation of Interception of Communications Act
2010, which the President assented to on August 5, 2010 (Vision Reporter, 2011), a law intended
to bar users of ICTs from repeatedly abusing those they communicate to, or using Internet and
telephones in a manner that threatens national security or the security of individuals.
Unfortunately this law has a significant weakness: the fine or penalty of UGSh1.4 million or
three year’s imprisonment or UGSh200000 daily in case of serious cases, sounds lenient
especially where hardcore offenders are involved.
Therefore, Literature reveals that different sectors of the Ugandan economy have registered
varying developments in ICTs for e-Governance. This paper reviewed the following sectors:
Health, Education, Agriculture, Financial services, and Public Administration.
The government has done some work to see to it that technology is spread all over these sectors,
however, there remains an avalanche of challenges to fulfill this and many scholars have advised
that if the government of Uganda is to achieve success in this program, they need to take it as a
priority. This study will therefore be focused on the factors of consideration for leveraging on
available ICT tool to achieve genuine e-Governance in Uganda.
Objectives
The research paper seeks to achieve its general objective of leveraging on available ICT tools to
transform from physical governance to e-Governance by the government of Uganda by focusing
on the following objectives.
To determine the influence of perceived risks on the use of ICT tools to transform physical
governance to e-Governance by the government of Uganda.
To determine the influence of ICT tools characteristics (efficiency and effectiveness) in the
achievement of e-Governance in Uganda.
To assess the influence of personal innovativeness on use of ICT tools to achieve e-Governance
by the government of Uganda.
Research questions

Does perceived risks influence the use of ICT tools to achieve e-Governance by the government
of Uganda?
Does ICT tools characteristics (efficiency, effectiveness) influence the implementation of e-
Governance in Uganda?
Does personal innovativeness influence the use of ICT tools to achieve e-Governance by the
government of Uganda?
Methodology
The study intends to use cross sectional survey in determining the leverage of the Ugandan
government in achieving e-governance in rural areas. The study will sample over 400
government institutions from different rural districts across the country and the study will collect
both primary and secondary data and the quantitative data generated will be analyzed using
descriptive statistics which will include percentage distribution, mean and the frequency counts.
The qualitative data from the study will undergo transcription and reported in themes and sub-
themes. The relationship between the independent and dependent variables will be explained
through multiple regression.
Research timetable
The project is expected to be completed in 16 weeks with the following indicated as the activities
durations for every section of the research project.
Research section duration
Title 1 week
Introduction 1 week
Need for this study 2 weeks
Background 2 weeks
Objectives 1 week
Research questions & hypothesis 1 week
Research methodology 2 weeks
Data analysis interpretations & discussions 3 weeks
Summary conclusion and recommendations 2 weeks
Reviewing work for the final submission 1 week
Reference
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