Availability and Access to Open Government Data in Nigeria: A Content Analysis of Government Websites and Nigerian Data Portal

Abstract

Abstract Globally, democratic principles revolve around transparency, accountability and greater involvement of the citizens in government programmes and activities for sustainable development. This can only be achieved if the people have access to government information and this is why agitations for freedom of information continue to heighten. Open government data (OGD) play major roles in democratization of information and a propeller of transparency and open governance. This paper adopted descriptive informatics and literature review approach to examine the websites of major government ministries and agencies in Nigeria including Nigeria Data Portal to determine the availability and status of open government data. Findings reveal that while some websites have presence of OGD, over 60% are yet to provide such data in the website. Also the data portal has several government data but they are hardly updated. The paper also identified several challenges of OGD in Nigeria and proposed recommendations to mitigate the challenges.