With the dawn of the technological age due to the wide spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs), e‑government is fast becoming of prime importance. This has prompted many governments (those of Sub‑Saharan African ‑ SSA incl uded) to start thinking of going digital. This growing importance stems from the fact that e‑government has the capability of promoting better governance, transparency, raising service performance and eliminating bottlenecks in the service delivery proce ss. This paper is based on a literature review of the papers and documents relating to e‑government and investigates the challenges to the successful implementation of e‑government initiatives in all the 49 African countries in SSA for the period 2001 to 2012. In order to conduct a systematic review the guidelines suggested by Webster and Watson (2002) and Okoli and Schabram (2010) have been followed. In total 75 relevant articles and documents have been examined all of which have been published in le ading journals, conferences proceedings, reports from governmental and non‑governmental organizations. The results show that ICT infrastructure, human resources, legal framework, Internet access, the digital divide, and connectivity are among the most com mon themes on the challenges to the successful implementation of e‑government initiatives in Sub‑Saharan African countries. These themes are further grouped into six different aspects abbreviated as IF‑POSH (Infrastructural, financial, political, organis ational, socio‑economic and human). Among these six aspects, infrastructural and human aspects are the most important challenges that the respective governments in SSA need to address prior to adopting implementation strategies. The study suggests that g overnments of the Sub‑Saharan African countries can benefit from the advantages of e‑government if they address these challenges collectively allowing for the sensitivity of certain socio‑economic realities.