NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT OPEN DATA POLICY

A Policy requires the federal government to publish data in open formats for citizen engagement and innovation. It targets MDAs, developers, researchers, and citizens accessing government datasets. This increases transparency and supports data-driven applications.

What Is This Policy?

Nigeria's national open data policy committing the federal government to proactively publishing government data in open, machine-readable formats to enable citizen engagement, research, innovation, and accountability.

Who Does It Target?

Federal government MDAs publishing open data Technology developers using government data Civil society and researchers accessing government datasets Citizens engaging with government data portals

What Does It Aim to Achieve?

Increase transparency and enable innovation by making government data freely available online in formats that allow reuse, analysis, and building of applications.

Key Features

Data Publication: MDAs must proactively publish datasets on the national open data portal. Open Formats: Data must be published in open, machine-readable formats (CSV, JSON, XML). Licence: Open data is published under a permissive licence enabling reuse. Priority Datasets: Identifies priority datasets for early publication including health, education, and budget data.

Current Status

Rollout Stage: Active Coverage: Federal government data assets Beneficiaries: Researchers; citizens; innovators; accountability Funding: Federal Government; donor support

How to Access

Access Nigerian government open data at https://data.gov.ng Developers: build applications using government open data MDAs: submit datasets for publication through the portal Application method: Access open data at https://data.gov.ng

Important Terms

Open data does not include personal or classified information APIs for machine-readable access are preferred for large datasets Quality and timeliness of open data publication vary significantly across MDAs

Official Resources

Website: https://data.gov.ng Contact: Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy / NITDA

Legal Framework

Operates under the Freedom of Information Act 2011, the Statistics Act 2007, the National Information Technology Development Agency Act 2007, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, and the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015. Draws on the International Open Data Charter and the Open Government Partnership commitments of Nigeria.