E-Government And The Performance Of Small And Medium Enterprises In Kisumu County Central Business District, Kenya

Abstract

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector plays significant role in the economy of Kenya particularly as far as establishment of employment opportunities is concerned. E-government has the capability to speed up transformation, improve delivery of service and boost information transmission in the governments/public institution administration. The motivation behind the research was to establish the relationship between E-government on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kisumu County Central Business District (CBD), Kenya. Descriptive cross-sectional research was the nature of the study, with population target being 332 registered and active business enterprises operating within Kisumu County CBD. The SMEs were stratified according to business type and then from each stratum, a representative number of businesses were purposively sampled. A sample size of 77 SMEs were picked of which the researcher received 53 responses from respondents to whom the questionnaires were administered. The primary data collected through questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and to summarize the findings, descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were applied. The findings revealed notably low adoption rate and moderate use of E-government platforms with iTax being the highly adopted and utilized E-government platform while the least adopted and used being eProcurement. According to the findings, E-government platforms have effect on the performance of the SMEs in Kisumu County CBD. The study recommends that the National and County Governments develop clear strategies that will enable seamless implementation of E-government in all their public service delivery then conduct joint mass sensitization and offer incentives for use of E-government especially among business enterprises. SMEs on the other hand should also adopt and use E-government platforms as it can help reduce operational costs incurred while accessing public services and enhance sustainable profitability.