Reinventing the public sector in Africa through knowledge management

There is extensive coverage in literature of knowledge management (KM) implementation based on private sector entities. Although recent trends have been characterised by a shift towards understanding KM in the public sector organisations, there is very little focus on the public sector entities in Africa. KM has become popular in modern organisations because it is capable of enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of entities if properly implemented. While the explosion of the internet has seen the emergence of public sector transformation programmes such as e‐government plans, most African states have wholly adopted these without due consideration to the structural constraints they would face in their implementation. Having observed that e‐government is technology‐based and most African states lack the necessary information technology (IT) tools to effectively implement it, my proposition in this paper is that the most viable option of transforming the public sector in Africa could be through KM, rather than e‐government. Nevertheless, e‐government plans in African states should be implemented as a component of the overall KM strategy.