The Impact of ICT Investments on Development Using the Capability Approach: The case of the Nigerian Pre-paid Electricity Billing System

Most existing ICT for development (ICT4D) literature tends to focus mainly on design, transfer and implementation issues. There is limited focus on the impact of ICT projects on development and little concrete analysis of these initiatives in terms of their long-term developmental impact. In this paper, we use Sen’s notion of capabilities as an evaluative space for ICT project assessment. We employed the freedom concepts of the capability approach to focus on the developmental impact of such projects. We based our evaluation on the Pre-paid Electricity Billing system in Nigeria. Our analysis shows that the pre-paid system failed to fully achieve its developmental potentials. The study concludes with some implications for policy makers advancing an agenda for” ICTs for Development.”