Connecting The Dots: Bridging Nigeria’s Geospatial Data Gap
In the quest for sustainable development, Nigeria faces a silent but systemic barrier: the chronic underdevelopment of its geospatial data infrastructure. It is a challenge that receives little public attention but has far-reaching consequences—undermining our ability to make smart, evidence-based decisions in health, agriculture, infrastructure, and economic planning.
A recent assessment by Dev-Afrique Development Advisors confirms what many development actors already suspect: Nigeria’s geospatial ecosystem is not only fragmented and under-coordinated, but profoundly unfit to serve the scale and complexity of the country’s development ambitions.
Geospatial data refers to information that is tied to a location. It is the backbone of modern planning and delivery. Whether mapping unserved communities for health interventions, identifying viable farmland, or planning urban infrastructure, spatial data enables targeted, cost-effective, and inclusive decision-making.
Countries like Rwanda, Kenya, and India have demonstrated the catalytic potential of geospatial data. With the right systems in place, these nations have strengthened disaster preparedness, optimised public services, and attracted private investment through better data-driven planning.
Nigeria risks falling further behind.
To be clear, Nigeria is not starting from scratch. Several agencies—NASRDA, OSGOF, the National Population Commission, and the National Bureau of Statistics—are active in geospatial work. Initiatives such as GRID3, eHealth Africa, and the Data Scientists Network have developed valuable datasets and use cases across health, urban mapping, and climate vulnerability.
Yet, the ecosystem remains disjointed. Agencies operate in silos, using inconsistent methods, storing data on separate platforms, and often refusing to share. According to our assessment, data accessibility often depends on internal bureaucracy or even personal discretion. There is no national repository. In some cases, valuable datasets are stored on personal laptops or USB drives—one technical failure away from being lost forever.
This lack of coordination not only leads to duplication of effort but also deprives planners and policymakers of a comprehensive, real-time understanding of Nigeria’s development needs.
The health sector illustrates what’s possible—and what’s lost. Between 2012 and 2020, Nigeria’s polio eradication campaign used geospatial data to identify previously unmapped settlements and plan immunisation routes. This precision was instrumental in achieving polio-free status. But today, few of these tools are institutionalised.
Many states lack even basic mapping capacity, and health planners continue to work without up-to-date spatial data.
Agriculture, which employs a third of Nigeria’s workforce and contributes nearly a quarter of GDP, is similarly constrained. Most farming decisions are made using outdated, generalised data. There’s a glaring lack of high-resolution information on soil health, water resources, and cropping patterns. Without these insights, climate-smart agriculture and food security will remain out of reach.
Dev-Afrique’s study breaks the ecosystem into three critical pillars: generation, analysis, and operationalisation. Each is leaking value.
Data generation is project-based and unstandardized. Agencies use different formats, and funding is often ad hoc. While some open platforms exist, many datasets remain locked or underused.
Analysis suffers from underinvestment. Proprietary tools are expensive, and few institutions are trained in open-source alternatives or advanced analytics like AI. As a result, even when data is collected, it’s rarely turned into insight.
Operationalisation—putting data to work—is the weakest link. Many successful pilot projects remain donor-driven and disconnected from national strategies. There is no formal system for scaling proven tools or sharing lessons across sectors.
Perhaps most troubling is the shortage of trained personnel at all levels of government. In many states, even basic map reading is a challenge. The few skilled professionals available are often lost to better-paying opportunities in NGOs or the private sector. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s educational programs have not kept pace with modern geospatial needs, creating a widening talent gap.
This capacity shortfall reinforces the cycle of underuse and underinvestment. Without capacity, demand remains low. Without demand, justification for systemic investment remains weak.
Solving this problem is not a luxury—it is a necessity. Five urgent actions can help reverse course:
Legislate the NGDI Bill: Nigeria must pass the long-pending National Geospatial Data Infrastructure Bill. It will establish the legal framework for standardisation, governance, and data sharing.
Assign a lead agency: The government must appoint a coordinating body with a clear mandate to unify the ecosystem and eliminate duplication. At the moment, there is duplication of roles amongst government agencies like NASRDA and OSGOF
Create a central data repository: The proposed NGDI portal can serve as a national warehouse—open, interoperable, and regularly updated. It must be prioritised.
Invest in skills and technology: Training at the federal and subnational levels must be modernised and scaled. Embracing open-source tools and cloud infrastructure will expand access and lower barriers.
Align donor investments: Development partners must work within a national framework to avoid duplication and ensure long-term sustainability.
Geospatial data may not dominate headlines—but it determines everything from who gets a clinic to where the next climate disaster will hit hardest. It is the invisible infrastructure of smart governance.
Nigeria cannot afford to fly blind. If we are to meet the complex challenges of today and tomorrow—from epidemics to economic planning—then fixing the geospatial data pipeline must be treated as a top national priority.
It’s time to connect the dots—literally and strategically.
Sorunke is a Principal of Dev-Afrique Development Advisors