EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME TO REDUCE DIGITAL DIVIDE: THE CASE OF SENIOR CITIZENS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Digital Divide is a major issue in Singapore. To bridge this Digital Divide, the Singapore government introduced the ‘Smart Nation Initiative’. The ‘Senior For Smart Nation’ Programme is a part of this initiative to help Senior Citizens to make effective use of digital technology. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the ‘Senior For Smart Nation’ Programme in helping senior citizens to make effective use of digital technology for transactional activities. The findings are that attending ‘Senior For Smart Nation’ Programme improved senior citizens’ acceptance of digital technology by lowering their percieved transaction cost but did not have significant impact on the actual usage of digital technology. The mismatch between cognitive acceptance and adoption can be attributed to senior citizen’s deterioating cognitive ability such as learning new skills. Improvement in Programme structure may be more effective in helping senior citizens to adopt digital technology.