THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF E-GOVERNANCE IN ETHIOPIA THE CASE OF TOLL FREE 888 CALL CENTER

Abstract

E-governance in Ethiopia has had a significant impact on public administration, changing the environment in which the public service operates, adding new concepts and methods to its operations and changing the relative weight and relationships among established elements of public administration. Perhaps the single most powerful concept inherent in e-government is citizen-centered service delivery. In this view, government services should be designed from the starting point of meeting citizens’ needs or of helping citizens to meet their civic obligations. In Ethiopian electronic environment, citizen capacity is a key factor as well as citizen’s need and public administration is pulled to present itself where the public is located, physically and online. One of the integral parts of the citizen-centered work is self-service, in which the customer assumes many of the administrative tasks performed by the service provider. In this context, tollfree 888 Call-Centre services in Ethiopia can perform on twenty-four hours in a week basis. Ethiopia has started e-government services as a mechanism to raise changes in its governance systems for achieving the growth and transformation plan (GTP) goals and to ensure better service delivery to citizens. This ensures improved public sector efficiency, accountability and responsiveness. This paper argues that a successful adoption of call centre has the potential to provide better service delivery at reduced costs, increase public sector efficiency, minimise corruption and improve the accountability, transparency and responsiveness of the public sector. Nevertheless, it is however; acknowledged that initiatives in 888 call centre in Ethiopia is fraught with numerous challenges that include lack of infrastructure, low tele-density, bureaucratic inefficiency and administrative corruption. Hence, this research will show the shortcomings and will recommend important issues to address those problems.