The authors of the paper, principal analyst Nick Jotischky and senior analyst Sheridan Nye, found that east African countries including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania had taken the benefits of delivering public services using cellular technologies to citizens and small businesses faster than SA, particularly in the agricultural sector, for the payment of utility bills, and other financial transactions.

The paper was unveiled at the 14th annual AfricaCom conference in Cape Town this week.

E-government will enable governments on the continent to become more efficient in fulfilling their service delivery functions.

Informa said that when looking at e-government strategies in Africa, something was particularly striking, namely there was no clear articulation of the potential role that mobile devices could play in the spread of government services. "Given the role that mobile has played in the African economy and culture in the last decade, this is strange," the analysts said.

Informa noted that government departments could benefit, improving organisational and business processes and efficiencies, while applications would improve the lives of citizens. Applications would also benefit the relationship between government and the private sector.

Informa forecast that a third of mobile connections in SA would be via smartphones by 2016. "There is some world-weariness and cynicism in SA as to whether mobile government will take-off, while at the same time there is real anticipation as to the benefits and revenue that it can bring," the analysts said.

The research group said that for mobile government to take off across the entire continent there needed to be a success story in SA. "But the cynic might suggest with some justification that the industry has been discussing this issue throughout the decade and there has been little action to go with the talk," the authors of the paper said.

In order for the continent to succeed in implementing a mobile government, the state would have to work with the private sector to ensure that political vision became action, Informa said.

Gareth Vorster was hosted by Ericsson at the AfricaCom conference