Information Communication Technology (ICT) Utilization in Uganda Local Governments; Why Low Uptake?

Governments worldwide are increasingly recognizing the need to facilitate access to public services to their citizens and business through information exchange using Information and Communications Technologies. The study was conducted in Local Governments’ in Uganda where a total of 65 respondents out of a total of 69 representing 94.2% response rate was realised after administering the study instruments over a period of six (6) months. Those Local Governments that had benefitted greatly from the Uganda Governments’ ICT Infrastructure Development Project were purposively selected. Data was analyzed using different statistical techniques which included descriptive statistics mainly mean and standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient to establish the relationships between variables and Multiple Regression analysis to establish the effect of factors on ICT utilization. At bivariate level, organizational support systems, ICT infrastructure and users’ perceptions had a strong relationship with ICT utilization. Multiple regression analysis revealed that only user perceptions and organizational support had a significant positive effect on ICT utilization. Recommendations are that the Government should formulate and disseminate policies to Local Governments to regulate ICT digital divides, address strategies to change users’ negative perception towards ICT utilisation and offer support to Local Government administrators to enhance ICT utilization. Further research may consider areas such as taking a comparative study to assess views from at least one or two Local Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa preferably in the East African region.