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Top1. Introduction
The digital revolution has had a huge influence on societies, affecting how people work (United Nations, 2021; Nambisan, 2017). Today, organizations, both businesses, and governments, struggling to keep afloat and excel by adopting technologically propelled services; hence, the use of some dictions such as the computer age, digital age, silicon age, and new media age to describe today’s world trend. In public administration and service entities, e-government, e-governance, e-service, and other such ‘Es’ have become buzzwords to depict the new normal. E-governance entails the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) by governments to enhance the range and quality of information and services provided to citizens, businesses, civil society organizations, and other government agencies in an efficient, cost-effective, and convenient manner, to make government processes more transparent and accountable, and to strengthen democracy and service delivery (The World Bank, 2015).
Nigeria's governments have implemented digital literacy training programs to improve e-governance resources. Cross River State, a sub-national-level government, has implemented initiatives to equip civil servants with digital skills for successful service delivery. In 2007, then-governor Donald Duke launched digitization programs, supported by Global Affairs Canada. Since 2010, in-service training has been provided to enhance digital literacy skills. Despite investments in ICT infrastructure and capacity building, service delivery in the state has not significantly improved. The benefits of digitization and ICT in providing services are not yet felt, leading to dissatisfaction, and increasing operating costs for members of the public as clients. As a result, the government-citizen interface has yet to be bridged, and the gap between service objectives and actual services supplied remains. Yet, some proponents of the adoption of digitization and e-governance often write as if it is a magic wand (Obi, Uzor, Chukwurah, 2020; The Guardian, 2019; Dugbazah, Glover, Mbuli, and Kungade, 2022) that will lead to good governance and effective service delivery once a transition to its deployment is made. Providing insight into the barriers of digitalization has tremendous utility for organizations and policymakers, especially in the digital age where ICT plays a dominant role.