The state of Open Government Data in Nigeria: Evaluation of the Government Website.

Abstract

The study investigates the state of the Open Government Data initiative in Nigeria by evaluating Nigeria’s Open Government Data Portals. It is believed that the first step in exploring the OGD in a country is to identify how robust and up to date the datasets are and activities on the OGD portal. Past studies have not investigated and evaluated the Nigeria’s OGD portals (the ministries and agencies’ OGD portals). The researcher investigates and evaluates the OGD portals for eight weeks. OGD portals (ministries and agencies) at the federal level in terms of OGD portals’ structural and functional characteristics were investigated and evaluated. The researcher found out that the federal government does not own an OGD portal in Nigeria but rather by ministries and agencies. Users’ inputs are not considered when providing datasets on the portal. Lack of precision in data search on the OGD portals and quality data. The researcher identified some policies related to Open Government Data. The researcher suggested the provision of a federal open government data portal, quality data, balancing the supply and demand side of the datasets in Nigeria.

Lateef Ayinde

School of Information, Florida State University

Lateef Ayinde is currently a graduate teaching assistant and a Ph.D. student in the School of Information, Florida State University. Before attending Florida State, he earned his Master’s in Information Science from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He has worked as an Information Service Professional at Lagos Business School and Pan Atlantic University, as well as a Research Fellow at Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative and the Centre for Technology and Culture at Curtin University. He is an academic, researcher, and information professional in the field. Lateef won the best paper in 2021 at Business Information Review, Sage. He has published at Emeraldinsight, Sage among others.