Potential benefits of Nigeria’s proposed Open Data Initiative

In addition, the data made available by the Nigerian government to the public are non sensitive government data mostly in forms of financial figures, maps, statistics etc”.
The Nigerian Open Data Initiative is a step forward since the signing into law of the Freedom of Information Act on May 28th, 2011. It was inaugurated with the Open Data Stakeholders workshop on January 29th, 2014. This initiative is championed by the nation’s Ministry of Communication and has received support from the World Bank, Department for International Development, African media initiative and other global partners to ensure its successful implementation. Furthermore, the Open Data Initiative is one that will fuel research, development, transparency and accountability for the success of our society. It is gratifying to note also that the Edo State Government commenced the first sub national Open Data Initiative in Africa.
Owing to the success of open data in advanced countries, Nigeria is poised to largely benefit from both the economic and social benefits of open data if the right practices are adopted. I recently learnt that a report by McKinsey & Company, a global management and consulting firm estimates that unlocking the innovation of open data can generate $3trillion to $5trillion dollars in economic value annually. Furthermore, solutions from open data will create jobs for our growing unemployed youths; improve transparency in governance and proper public sector management; improve crisis management and enhance public trust in government etc. For example, publicising data on service delivery in areas such as the health sector can help improve quality of public service because the health service providers can learn and adopt best practices from each other.
In our quest to successfully deliver on the open data initiative, Nigeria must learn from countries at the forefront of open data implementation and adopt some of their best practices as follows;
• Encourage the meaningful participation and inclusion of the public, private sector, entrepreneurs, academia, civil societies and technologists in the implementation of the open data initiative road map
• Ensure availability of resources in form of technology skills, capacity building, fund for public willing to build solutions making use of government datasets
• Put measures in place to enforce trust and credibility of government datasets
• Guarantee continuous open dialogue with all stakeholders on what datasets should be made available for to solve societal challenges.  
• Partner with academic institutions nationwide to open research data to the public in the view to let loose its full benefits to the public development domain
• Encourage the autonomy and independence of national statistics offices, regulatory systems and media organi-zations thereby eliminating discrepancies between admini-strative data and data sourced from survey estimates
Having outlined some best practices above, the current state of Nigeria’s technology ecosystem is also characterised with some challenges that will deter the realization of the benefits open data offers. The major challenges of open data in Nigeria are summarised into two categories namely;
• Policy Challenges: these are as a result of poor policy implementation strategies, and defective ethical standards and legal frameworks to protect personal data.
• Non Policy challenges: These include; access to broadband internet, insufficient ICT skilled labour, access to credible data etc.
In conclusion, this open data initiative in our country Nigeria is akin to a bold step in harnessing the 21st century crude oil i.e. “data” to create value for the public and the country in general. Furthermore, we must seek innovative ways to transform these datasets into services and solutions that are tailored to solve the challenges we face in our society.

Samuel, a freelance creative technology enthusiast, can reached at: [email protected]