An investigation has revealed most Nigerian ministries and agencies fail to actively update their websites, despite massive investment in ICT over the last year.
Daily Trust investigations revealed the Petroleum, Defense and Agriculture ministries do not have active websites, while those that have them are not updating regularly.
The official website of the Ministry of Power is filled with outdated information, including the name of the minister, with the listed incumbent Barth Nnaji having left office in August 2012.
Despite massive investment by the government and consciousness of the need for improved spread of information by various sectors of government, the investigation described the processes of information dissemination by government ministries as relatively “slow and antiquated”.
“Most government websites are rarely updated, have blank pages or contain links that lead to no pages at all,” the report stated.
In 2012, the government spent 27.7 billion naira (US$176 million) on information technology services and consultancy for its ministries and agencies. The sum covered the setup of data banks, e-governance and simplification of information dissemination, as well as the digitalisation of the operations of government agencies.
It also covered the costs of Internet access, information technology consulting, satellite broadcasting access charges, computer software acquisition, information technology training and PC purchases.
