E-Government Adoption in West Africa: A Narrative Review of Trends, Challenges, and Policy Innovations

Abstract

E-government initiatives in West Africa have expanded over the past decade, yet adoption and implementation remain uneven across the sub-region. This structured narrative review synthesises peer-reviewed scholarship published between January 2015 and December 2025, identified through targeted searches in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, conference proceedings and authoritative grey literature, including United Nations E-Government Survey reports, World Bank datasets, and national digital strategy documents, to provide policy context. The review is organised around recurring analytical categories in the literature, including digital inclusion and infrastructure, citizen engagement, transparency and anti-corruption, cybersecurity and data protection, service delivery outcomes, and institutional capacity. Across these domains, the literature points to three consistent findings. First, access constraints and high connectivity costs continue to shape who benefits from digital public services. Second, weak institutional capacity and limited interoperability often produce fragmented implementation even where national strategies exist. Third, trust-related factors remain decisive for sustained uptake, particularly cybersecurity governance and data protection enforcement. Comparative indicators further reveal divergent trajectories within the sub-region, with Ghana performing ahead of many peers on the United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI), while Nigeria remains in the middle tier despite major reforms. This review consolidates dispersed regional evidence within a single analytical frame, clarifies the determinants most consistently associated with e-government adoption in West Africa, and identifies priorities for both implementation and future research.