e-GOVERNANCE AND SERVICE DELIVERY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION IN NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA.

Realizing the implications of the prevailing low education and awareness of information and communication (ICT) in Nigeria for efficient service delivery by government institutions and agencies, or e-governance, the Federal Government of Nigeria embarked on legislative, policy and institutional initiatives to redress the situation. Evidence ascribes the particularly poor e-governance among the local government councils to the disconnect formal institutions responsible for developing and disseminating new ideas and innovations in ICT to affd the councils. In effects, the slack in information flow and weak structures have militated against the realization of objectives of e-governance, particularly by local government areas of Nigeria, as explainable by diffusion theory and structural-functionalism. In the survey research, several findings were made among which poor ICT lagged or lacking information dissemination to local government councils, low level of ICT literacy among employees of local councils and very low budgetary allocation to ICT development by councils, among other. Accordingly, it was recommended among other that the information dissemination apparatus should be strengthened to bridge the gap between the institutions and the councils.