Celebrating Our FOI 2023 Stars

Dear Friends,

In July 2022, only 19 out of 1316 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies?(MDAs) in Nigeria had FOI portals, according to the 2022?OGP Steering Committee Meeting Notes. It was also observed?that very few MDAs proactively publish information on their websites. To improve these statistics, The PPDC and the National FOI Ranking cohort have strongly advocated for access to information through the Freedom of Information Act of 2011. Every year, we commemorate International Right to Know Day by ranking public institutions based on their disclosure of information.

In this special FOI newsletter edition, you will uncover a trend analysis of the rankings over the past three years and our 2023 National FOI champions.

On the 26th of September 2023, the FOI ranking cohort consisting of the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), BudgIT, The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Right to Know (R2K), and Accountability Lab unveiled the fifth edition of the National Freedom Of Information Ranking at the Federal Ministry of Finance.

These rankings?are aimed at entrenching accountability and transparency in Nigerian public and security sector institutions by ensuring Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) publish data and citizens have timely and unrestricted access to information.?

COMPLIANCE ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL FOI RANKING (2020-2022)

This year, a total of 239 federal public institutions inclusive of the Security Sectors were ranked based on three parameters which are; Proactive Disclosure, Level of Disclosure, and Level of Responsiveness to requests for Information.

?We took a closer look at how well institutions adhered to the FOI over the past three years and discovered that between 2020 to 2021, the number of institutions responsive to FOI requests increased by 7.5%. In 2022, there was a 70.4% increase in responsiveness to requests for information and a 47% decline in proactive responsiveness. About 36% of MDAs responded within 8-14 days in 2022, while 11.6% of MDAs responded after 15 days of request for information.

There was a significant improvement in the responsiveness of government agencies to FOI requests in 2022, but this progress was not sustained in 2023.?The 2020 - 2022 trend analysis reveals that at least 90% of the ranked public institutions are not fully proactive while only about 4% of MDAs were proactive in 2022. After no institutions achieved full proactive disclosure in 2020 and 2021, 11 institutions achieved full proactive disclosure in 2022. However, there was a significant decline in 2023, with only 2 institutions achieving full proactive disclosure, representing about an 80% decrease from 2022

2023 Ranking Result on Proactive Disclosure

Challenges/Recommendations for Proactive Disclosure to Thrive

While researching the reasons why MDAs fail to attain proactive disclosure, we found some challenges which are: Resource constraints with regards to subscribing to platforms to host their information, Inadequate tech-savvy staff, Outdated information, Data/information management, and accessibility.

To address this, our recommendation is for MDAs to Institutionalize and build staff capacity to develop and enhance information management systems.?

Meet the NATIONAL RANKING 2023 CHAMPS

In this year's ranking, Our winners have emerged and in the first place, we have the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission topping the chart this year with a cumulative of 70.33 points

The Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission came in second position with 64.66 points and? the National Orientation Agency in third place with 63 points

Lessons from our ranking show that more institutions need to be proactive in their disclosure. Proactive disclosure enhances citizens' access to information and cuts down administrative costs associated with printing physical documents and delivering letters in response to information requests. We encourage MDAs to proactively disclose information as it fosters transparency, accountability and builds citizens' trust.

To view our? rankings, click here