Addressing service delivery in rural areas through deployment of information and communication technology platforms

Abstract

ICTs have power to connect or provide access to poor people in remote rural villages. The initiatives to deploy ICTs in rural areas have mostly not been sustainable. The purpose of the paper is to ascertain what factors lead to the unsuccessful deployment of ICT Platforms in the rural areas. The contribution of ICT Platform adds to the important notion of access which enhances service delivery. This is seen through the Technology Acceptance Models used in this paper. The main research methodology qualitative study and data was collected from 14 container Platform sites. The importance of community leaders and technology champions in the acceptance and usage of these technologies by communities cannot be overemphasised. Finally, there is a need for policy development around deployment and their maintenance of these technologies.