The Effectiveness of E-Governance on Public Service Delivery in Zanzibar. Case Study: Business and Property Registration Authority (BPRA)

Key findings from this study

• The study found that accessibility exerts the strongest positive effect on public service delivery with a coefficient more than twice that of accountability.
• The researchers report that resource utilization produces a statistically significant but moderate effect on service outcomes, positioning it between accessibility and accountability in influence.
• The study established that all three mechanisms—accessibility, resource utilization, and accountability—significantly contribute to e-governance effectiveness, though in hierarchically distinct proportions.

Overview

This study assessed e-governance effectiveness on public service delivery in Zanzibar, examining three key mechanisms: accessibility, resource utilization, and accountability. The research focused on the Business and Property Registration Authority (BPRA) as a case study. A quantitative approach gathered data from 70 respondents to determine how digital service improvements correlate with perceived service quality.

Methods and approach

The study employed a quantitative research design, collecting survey data from 70 respondents. Analysis measured three independent variables (accessibility, resource utilization, accountability) against public service delivery outcomes. Standardized and unstandardized coefficients determined the relative strength of each variable's contribution to service delivery.

Results

Accessibility demonstrated the strongest positive effect on public service delivery, with an unstandardized coefficient of 0.675 and standardized coefficient of 0.456. This indicates a one-unit increase in accessibility corresponds to a 0.675-unit increase in service delivery outcomes. Resource utilization showed a secondary effect with coefficients of 0.320 (unstandardized) and 0.287 (standardized), while accountability produced the weakest effect with coefficients of 0.245 and 0.198 respectively.

All three variables produced statistically significant effects on service delivery, indicating that each contributes meaningfully to e-governance outcomes. Resource utilization demonstrated stronger predictive power than accountability mechanisms, suggesting that operational efficiency gains outweigh transparency mechanisms in influencing user perceptions of service quality. The findings establish a clear hierarchical relationship among the three factors, with digital accessibility as the primary driver of improved service delivery.

Implications

Institutions implementing e-governance systems should prioritize digital accessibility enhancements as the most impactful policy lever for improving service outcomes. Optimizing resource allocation and allocation mechanisms warrants secondary focus, while accountability frameworks—though statistically significant—occupy a lower priority position relative to accessibility and efficiency improvements. The disparate coefficients suggest that public users may prioritize ease of access and operational responsiveness over transparency mechanisms in their evaluation of service quality.

These findings indicate that technical infrastructure investments and user interface design may yield greater service delivery improvements than governance reforms alone. Future policy development should balance the allocation of resources across all three dimensions rather than focusing exclusively on any single factor. The case of BPRA suggests that e-governance success depends substantially on removing barriers to digital service utilization.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.