This document summarizes a case study investigating the use of Nigeria's online national budget data. A research team from the University of Ilorin analyzed budget data published by the Nigerian government since 2007. The goals of the study are to understand how the public engages with the national budget, assess media coverage of the budget, and identify challenges to using open budget data. The methodology includes surveys of government institutions, stakeholders, and media analysis of newspaper coverage and online discussions around the 2013 budget. The research aims to explore how open budget data can drive better governance in Nigeria.

1. Investigation of the use of the Online
National Budget of Nigeria
Research team:
(University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria)
Dr. Omenogo Veronica MEJABI;
Dr. Adesina L. AZEEZ;
Mr. Adeyinka ADEDOYIN; and
Mr. Muhtahir O. OLOYEDE.
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2. Case study focus
• Focuses on Nigeria’s National budget data
• Mainly government led on the supply side.
• Data from Federal Government of Nigeria
published through the website of the Budget
Office of the Federation since 2007.
http://www.budgetoffice.gov.ng
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3. National Context
• Nigeria is fraught with issues of corruption and
bad governance
• Citizens frustrated and distrustful of government
promises
• No existing government move towards open
government data: no portals or open data
initiative
• But, many organisations do publish data relevant
for governance on their websites: available to the
public with no restrictions.
• Public awareness of available data is unclear
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4. The Data Sets involved
• Budget of Nigeria available on the Budget Office
website since 2007…
• …but – not organised or structured.
• Link descriptions vary from year to year
(2007, 2008 and 2009) and it is not clear if the
data is the final approved budget, or the budget
as initially proposed to the National Assembly for
consideration.
• The 2011 budget has to be pieced together from
the 2011 quarterly reports on budget
implementation
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5. Budget website
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6. Budget website
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7. Typical Budget Data
(pdf, missing last column)
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8. Typical Budget Data
(hanging last column)
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9. Data Set (continued)
• Data files are published as PDF files
• Vast improvement from the past when such
data were only available as hard copies.
• A user:
may re-type the data into a spreadsheet
the PDF files can be converted to spreadsheet files
using readily available software converters such as
PDF to Excel.
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10. Research goals
The study will attempt to determine:
– how the public engage in the discussions of the
national budget
– review and assess newspaper coverage on the
budget of Nigeria
– degree of awareness of open data
– its potential to drive good governance
– identify the intermediaries in the flow of budget
information
• The study will also explore potential challenges to
effective use of such open budget data.
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11. Methodology
A range of approaches, including:
• Institutional survey
– incl. respondents from the Budget Office and Ministry of
Finance
• Stakeholder survey
– survey & in-depth interview: journalists, Key persons in
NGOs, social networkers, professionals, visible budget
analysts
• Media analysis
– newspapers (from 2009 – 2013)
– online social networks (around the 2013 budget)
• Trace of data from origin to end use
– ODR mapping & visualisation tool 11

12. So far
• Literature review to support the development
and refinement of our data collection
instruments
• e.g. Newspaper analysis coding sheet.
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Research Methods Issues
• Software that would help us extract and
analyze online social media discussions
• Software to analyze content from the
interviews.
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