Emmanuel Eilu

Designing reality fit m-voting

In this paper, we examine the declining trends in voter turn-up in Uganda and other developing countries. We also look at the possibility of using ICT especially the widely used mobile phones to improve citizen participation in voting. We also assess the current citizen perception and responses towards using their mobile phones for voting. In addition we discuss political, technological, social and cultural factors that are likely to affect the use of mobile phones for voting.

Mobile Money Services as a Panacea to Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Uganda

One of the most important drivers for sustainable economic growth and development is financial inclusion. This explains why financial exclusion is a leading cause of extreme poverty and a key barrier to growth. The level of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa still remains low. However, there is evidence that mobile money technology, taking advantage of the high level of mobile phone penetration in the region, has been seen to drive financial inclusion. However, very few studies have been conducted in the region to particularly establish the extent mobile money service usage has leveraged financial inclusion. In this study, we investigate the extent to which three most common mobile money services namely, sending money, receiving money and bill payment have leveraged financial inclusion in a Sub-Saharan African country like Uganda. Our study reveals that the most widely used mobile money service in this rural area was for receiving money. This has greatly enhanced financial inclusion by facilitating both domestic and international remittance.

Using Mobile Phones in Elections in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges

A considerable number of developing countries have introduced Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) mainly in the initial stages of the electoral process such as voter registration using biometric technology. Post-conflict and emerging democracies in particular are exploring biometric voter registration to have clean voter registers—free of ghost voters such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Guinea Conakry, and Uganda. However, several other attempts to integrate ICTs—particularly computer-based systems in electoral processes in many developing countries have registered high failure. Causes of failure are mainly social cultural and economic challenges rather than technical and security factors. The various failures come at a soaring price for the world’s poorest countries. For example in 2001, Uganda lost US

Improving Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in African Countries Using ICT: A Literature Review Analysis

22 million in a failed e-registration system. Hence there is a need to continue investigating how such failures can be avoided or at least reduced. Some Scholars have suggested the use of mobile phones as a voting tool given their wide spread use, portability, and affordability. However, to-date, research on use of mobile phones in elections has mainly focused on individual cases of using mobile phones in elections in specific countries. To our knowledge, there has not been an examination of current use of mobile phones in elections versus the opportunities they offer and existing challenges. This discussion is useful to inform future development of mobile phone based electoral services and enactment of relevant policies. This chapter discusses opportunities mobile phones can offer developing countries in organizing and conducting free and fair elections, how mobile phones are currently being used, challenges still inhibiting wider use of mobile phones in elections in developing countries and possible solutions.

Improving Access to Health Services in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Mobile and Wireless Technologies

Many countries in Africa do not have adequate capacity to mobilize domestic fiscal resources for economic growth and development. This has led to an extremely low tax-to-GDP ratio in many African countries. Countries in the Sub-Sahara Africa region continue to fall below 7% growth rate. For economic development and growth to happen, a country should have an effective and efficient tax system to mobilize domestic fiscal resources to finance the provision of essential public goods and services. For domestic taxation is a panacea for development. Currently, there are extensive calls for reforms in the tax systems. One of the reforms that can greatly change the face of many tax bodies in Africa and has a great potential to improve domestic revenue collection is the integration of ICT into the tax systems. A number of African countries have started an array of initiatives to exploit ICT with a view of improving domestic tax revenues. Indeed, in this modern age, it is quite difficult to conceive of a tax administration system that can perform to its expectation without making considerable use of ICT. However, high expectations on the use of multi-million dollar ICT resources to improve the tax systems in Africa has either not materialized or has proven to be a much more time-consuming and costly than originally envisaged. There is a need to investigate the current use of ICT in Tax Administrations and the extent to which ICT addresses significant challenges in Tax Administration. The lessons outlined in this chapter may be important in informing governments in Africa on how to successfully improve Tax Administration using ICTs.

M-voting in developing countries : Findings from Uganda

About 70% of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are associated with infectious diseases. Sub-Saharan Africa has, on average, fewer than ten doctors per 100,000 people, and 14 countries do not have a single radiologist. Hospital facilities are inadequate. On average, there are nine hospital beds for every 10,000 people living in sub-Saharan Africa, while in Europe, there are 62 hospital beds per 10,000 people. The health sector in many sub-Saharan African countries continues to face many challenges, particularly in disease surveillance and infectious disease epidemic. Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are continuously gaining ground in sub-Saharan Africa, and the recent Ebola epidemic in the West Africa is still the largest in history. On the other hand, sub-Saharan Africa is forecasted to be the fastest-growing region in the world. Mobile and wireless technology penetration rates in many sub-Saharan countries are rapidly increasing. The use of mobile and wireless technologies in the healthcare industry (mHealth) has an enormous potential to provide improved and easily accessible healthcare at lower costs. However, there is very little empirical knowledge on its efficacy, sustainability, and best practice of mHealth in sub-Saharan Africa, and many mHealth projects are still being piloted. Therefore, using systematic review method, this chapter examines the use of mobile and wireless technologies in the prevention, surveillance, management, and compliance of disease epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and the extent to which mobile phone technology addresses rampant challenges associated with access to health services in the region. This chapter also identifies challenges of implementing mHealth and outlines a number of remedies. The lessons outlined in this chapter are of great significance for those planning or deploying mHealth in sub-Saharan Africa.