Towards A Data-Driven Innovation Business Model in Digital Government Services in Namibia: A Survey

Abstract

Digital government services are supposed to efficiently and effectively deliver value services to citizens and businesses. Currently, the citizens in Namibia are not getting value propositions from the currently implemented e-government services as the services are not citizen-centric. In this setup, each Office, Ministry, and Agency (OMAs) has its own applications which are not linked to other Ministries, that is, they operate in silos. As a result, other related institutions cannot easily access and use of their peers' data to deliver service to the citizens. Therefore, a study on “Towards A Data-Driven Innovation Business Model in Digital Government Services: A case of Namibia” was carried out. The purpose of the study was to survey the challenges faced by OMAs in delivering citizen-centric services in digital government. The study used a sample size of 47 respondents to obtain data using a mixed-method approach; qualitative and quantitative methods. The data collected via a questionnaire was analyzed with a theoretical, thematic, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis within the IBM SPSS, while data collected through interviews were analyzed with thematic data analysis. The study focused on the IT departments/divisions within the following OMAs: Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration (MHAI), Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Office of the Auditor-General (OAG), and Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS), which are part of the ten identified services for the e-government transformation phase of 2014–2018. The output of this research is significant as it informs the design of Data-Driven business models or framework for implementation in digital governments.