Economic African Development in the Context of FinTech

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the effect of FinTech and political incertitude on economic growth through a multiple regression. Thus, the authors employ the method of generalized least square (GLS) with panel data. The sample concerns 21 African countries during (2001-2014-2017). The authors use a wide range of measures from Global Findex Database 2017, the World Bank platform, the World Bank national accounts data, and the OECD National Accounts data files base in the context of Africa. Empirical results show that FinTech is a driver of economic growth unless it is actively used in a developed digital infrastructure. In fact, the authors prove that, when financial technologies are used in both transactions (receive and made digital payment), they significantly contribute to the economic cycle. Passive use like simple consumption actions are not a significant lever for the economy. The principal contribution is to highlight that the active use of financial innovations and not passive one and the developed digital infrastructure do promote economic growth in African countries.

Fostering Public-Private Partnership

This chapter intends to provide a review of cooperation between public and private sectors towards cybersecurity governance. With the partnership, government can have confidence towards the safety and protection of their national critical digital infrastructure. The goal of this chapter is achieved by analyzing some of the cybersecurity frameworks adopted by the developed and developing nations. The analysis is further carried out by investigating the public-private policy initiatives in their national cybersecurity framework. The chapter also investigates the effectiveness of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST) adopted by the US government.

Digital Era Governance and Social Media

Digital technology is at the forefront of transforming how governments operate around the world. Using Brunei's Information Department (InfoDept) as a case study, this chapter looks at how the agency has evolved from its inception in the 1950s to 2019 in its embrace of both old and new media to pursue its mission and objectives as a government-run media agency. The results demonstrate how new media, such as social media, can complement old media if done right. The case study on InfoDept contributes to the growing field of research related to the increased advancement, development, application, and impact of new technologies in bolstering the digital governance process. This chapter also provides strong evidence on how governments can improve its general governance process and unlock the digital dividend in the 21st century by incorporating new media into its public policy architectonic. Salient lessons for policymakers and practitioners on digital governance have also been presented in this chapter.

Cybersecurity Governance on Social Engineering Awareness

Raising awareness on social engineering is becoming more essential. When we are connected to the internet, we are at the risk of becoming victims of numerous attacks. It is very difficult to protect ourselves from all of these threats, but the least we could do is not jeopardize our own safety. In order to achieve this, the need to have substantial knowledge on social engineering techniques and how to safeguard one from being victimized are mandatory. This research presents the overview of social engineering attacks. This plays a crucial role in supporting victims of cyber assaults.

Smart Cities and Digital Governance

With the ubiquitous low-cost sensor devices and widespread use of IoT, the paradigm is shifted from urban areas towards a smart city. A smart city is an urban area that uses IoT technologies to collect data and manage resources efficiently. The vision is to improve the capabilities and to solve the citizens' problems (e.g., energy consumption, transportation, recycling, intelligent security, etc.) in an efficient way. A smart city is a multidimensional term including a smart economy, smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart people, and smart governance. Although the concept of a smart city is increasing and currently there exist many such cities in many developed countries, one of the key challenges faced by these cities is good governance. Smart cities need smart governance to run the city in a smarter way, and effective digital governance is a solution to this end. Digital governance refers to the use of digital technology in government practices.

UAV-Based Smart Environmental Monitoring

In the context of digital governance, manmade activities will have the most impact on the environment. The concept of internet of things (IoT) is much more profound, supposedly having an impact on the way environmental sampling of data takes place. The cost benefits of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as alternate to satellite or high-altitude platform system (HAPS) is established as these are more flexible, mission specific, and versatile. UAV in sensor network context and communication relaying as well as data harvesting application is explored. Proposal to upgrade environmental laws and implementing network infrastructure security and cyber insurance for HetNets involving UAVs and environmental monitoring will be covered as well.

Democratic Governance

In any democratic nation, electoral processes pave the way to democratic governance. In regards to this, a fully digitized online voting system should be introduced, and governments should invest efforts in studying the possibilities in adopting online voting system to curb the issues mentioned above. In that sense, any user should be allowed to cast his/her vote from any remote location, and the processes should be held in full confidentiality without any intervention or possible vulnerabilities. Therefore, this chapter investigates how governments can learn various initiatives and provide funding to further conduct research and implement such methodologies. The chapter begins by exploring some traditional and current practice of electoral system and further embarks into a review of secured online voting systems that has been proposed by the body of knowledge. The chapter then presents how some countries have adopted this secured online voting systems and giving an avenue to secured digital electoral governance.

Success Stories of ICT Implementation in Saudi Arabia

Information and communication technology (ICT) has a great role in the development, growth, and economy of the country. ICT refers to any system, device, or product that can store, manipulate, and receive and transmit digital data effectively. ICT brings clear differences in the economy of countries wherever it is successfully implemented. It becomes a reason of timely, accurate, and efficient operations and becomes a source of user satisfaction by providing them fast, better, easy service around the clock. As timely access of information and communication plays a vital role in the success of any organization either public or private, many developed countries are already competing in digitalization. It is not only convenience, but it is the prime ingredient of good governance and an indispensable part of modern life. This chapter discusses the successful implementation of ICT infrastructures in the context of good governance and builds a vibrant society, the main agenda of Vision 2030 of KSA.

The Role of IoT in Digital Governance

The acronym IoT stands for internet of things. The IoT ecosystem can be envisioned as a set of physical electronic devices embedded with intelligence, connected through a network, enabling them to collect and exchange data, and allowing these devices to be sensed and handled remotely between the physical and cyber worlds. The devices connected through the internet has been influencing all walks of our life ranging from individual, societal, educational, industrial, entrepreneurial, and related to governance as well. As we are connected and surrounded with a plethora of connected smart devices, it seems there is a great risk of security and privacy in several aspects, such as device authentication, data theft, device manipulation, data falsification, etc., to name a few. Hence, the current chapter has been undertaken to explore and comprehend the security and privacy related implications, opportunities, future directions, and challenges involved in implementing digital governance with IoT.

Digital Governance for Developing Countries Opportunities, Issues, and Challenges in Pakistan

Information communication technology plays a vital role in countries' economic growth, and at the same time, it changes the form of traditional government to digital government. Digital governance is about having a competent and responsible government to deliver efficient, better, and 24/7 public services. It improves citizen participation, transparency, and overcomes administrative bottlenecks. Slackness of any government organisation in providing quality services will instantly become a topic of debate on print, electronic, and social media, forcing the political leaders to take corrective actions to save their own skin. However, for developing countries, this is going to be difficult to attain the same level of efficiency and flexibility. This study will examine the state of digital governance in developing countries particularly in the Pakistan government and will highlight the facts that through the implementation of digital governance in Pakistan (i.e., challenges and difficulties as well as opportunities that will help us to promote the application of digital governance).