A case study of geo - ICT for e - government in Nigeria : does computerisation reduce corruption in the provision of land administration services?

This paper examines the role of the Abuja geographic information systems as an e-government policy initiative for promoting the reduction in corruption in the provision of e-land administration services and good governance in general. The paper explores the contribution of e-land administration with regard to the different forms of corruption (i.e. fraud, forgery, multiple applications, bribery, nepotism and favouritism, and white collar malpractice) as well as the different services (i.e. legal searches, recertification of titles, granting rights of occupancy, consent to alienate and regularisation of titles). Generally, our findings suggest that corruption was reduced with the introduction of electronic services for the verification of land records through legal searches and the recertification of land titles. Yet, other forms of corruption, such as nepotism and favouritism, are persistent and increasing.