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Electronic Governance, Policy Implementation and Transparency in The Rivers State Ministry of Education, 2019-2025

Edward-Fred, Princess Amarachi Ibifuro Ojekwu, PhD

Abstract

Nigeria's public institutions have increasingly turned to electronic governance as a strategy for overcoming chronic inefficiencies in policy execution, yet evidence on whether digital reforms narrow the gap between policy intention and policy delivery at the ministry level remains limited. This study examined the impacts of electronic record management systems, digital communication platforms, and online administrative services on policy implementation and transparency in policy execution in the Rivers State Ministry of Education between 2019 and 2025. The study is anchored on the Technology Acceptance Model and Institutional Theory. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. Likert scale structured questionnaire were administered to 320 ministry staff selected through stratified random sampling from a population of 1,600, yielding 271 valid responses at an 84.7% response rate. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression at the 0.05 significance level. The findings revealed that the three electronic governance components jointly and significantly predicted both policy implementation and transparency in policy execution. Electronic record management emerged as the dominant predictor of policy implementation, while digital communication platforms and online administrative services were the stronger predictors of transparency in policy execution. The study concluded that electronic governance components serve distinct institutional functions and that no single component is equally effective across both governance outcomes. The study recommended that government ministries should make targeted investments in record management systems to strengthen policy implementation and in communication and online- service platforms to advance transparency in policy execution.

Keywords

electronic governancepolicy implementationtransparencyrecord managementeducation

References

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