It’s been an interesting year already for the Follow The Money (FTM) Movement. In January, we officially launched in The New Gambia. In the following month, we were in Kenya to do the same. All with the goal of spreading the adaptation of the FTM model across the continent so that citizens can hold their governments to account and facilitate development in their communities.

After weeks of planning and strategizing, the team were in Nairobi, Kenya on 10 February 2018 for Follow The Money Kenya Workshop and Launch, through a partnership with the Slums Information Development and Resource Centres (SIDAREC) – a youth/children development project operating in the slums of Nairobi. SIDAREC playing a host to Follow The Money Kenya won the ONE Africa Award in 2008, for her rigorous development driven activities in Kenyan slums, just like we won the same award 8 years later.

The workshop which started by 11 am on the aforementioned date was attended by over 100 participants. In participation included the Chief Executive of Connected Development, Hamzat B Lawal; Executive Director of SIDAREC, Lucy Mukami; Member of Imara Daima County Assembly, Hon. Ken Obuya; and a cross section of other stakeholders in community development and open government work. It was held at SIDAREC office at Imara Daima and was geared toward building the capacity of the participants on the FTM processes, for domestication in Kenya. The sessions in the workshop ranged from taking them through Follow The Money workflow; data mining to activate campaigns; how to leverage on information sharing partnerships to access and amplify information; the procedure for organizing community outreach and town hall meetings; as well as a discussion on the political economy of open government in Kenya and operationalization of Article 35 (Access to Information provision in the Kenyan 2010 Constitution).

While making a presentation at the workshop

Other side attractions during our visit to Kenya included a community outreach to Mukuru kwa Njenga Slum and a radio programme on citizen engagement, active citizenry and social accountability on 99.9 Ghetto FM – a community mobilization signature of SIDAREC.

The most important aspect of the launch/workshop was that it was held in a community/slum away from being held in an extravagant hotel in Nairobi, a traditional fashion exhibited by some organizations, in a way to unintentionally mainstream the development buzz malcontents. Doing this in a community we believe will strengthen local ownership of the initiative. In addition, a Member of County Assembly was in participation committing to facilitating government spending data availability as concerns the Ward Development Fund, County Development Fund etc.

At the end of the workshop, Follow The Money Kenya was officially commissioned. Its hoped that all things being equal, the Kenya Chapter will leverage on several social accountability tools already existing in the country such as access to information provision in the constitution to hit the ground running, identifying potential funds intended for communities and deploying the FTM strategies to make sure open government and service delivery work in Kenyan communities.

Kenya’s multi-party democracy realization journey was a back-breaking one and it’s believed Follow The Money Kenya will ensure the achievement of democracy dividends; hold elected public officials to account; and be a tool for checks and balances, for effective democratic accountability in the East African country.

Chambers Umezulike is a Senior Programme Manager at Connected Development and a Development Governance Expert. He spends most of his time writing and choreographing researches on good and economic governance. He tweets via @Prof_Umezulike

As organization grow, we seems to get some things out of place unintentionally; one of which is an email. As someone who send email a lot, I realised, sometimes when I want to send an email broadcast to the whole team – I was usually leaving out some team members unintentionally.

And this has caused me a lot of concern as teammates who are supposed to get an email does not receive one which might eventually lead to unintended consequences.

Thinking of how to mitigate such happenings, I started thinking of how to create an email list serve that will be for some team according to their group names.

One of such team is the Management Team, CODERs (which is a list of all staffs of CODE asides Community Champions and Community Park employee), Chapter Lead and others.

To create the Management Team email Listserve, I followed the following steps;

1. Look at the top left corner of the organization email, there is Mail text with a down arrow. Click on it
2. Pick the Contacts menu and it will automatically show you your contact list.
3. By the left menu, find “New Group” and click on it to create a new group
4. Since I am creating a management email listserve, I will name my group “Management”, you can name yours according to the team name or group name.
5. Click on “OK” once you are done and find your newly created group by the left menu options, mine is “Management”
6. Click on your newly created group (mine is Management)and it will show you that there is no contacts in the group.
7. Click on the icon with a + button under the search bar and enter all the contacts you want to add and click on add once you are done.
8. Once you are done, look at the top left corner and navigate back to email menu

With this step, we just created a “management” email listserve and to use the newly created group whenever you want to send a group email to the group, all you have to do is to write “management” on the To menu and you can automatically select the group.

With this, I know the next time I want to send an email to the management email, all I have to do is go to compose email button and enter the group name to select it.

Now I can send email to my groups without having to enter all emails one after the other – I just become a email Ninja.

Although there are some other ways to do this, but by far – this is the most simplest of all the options available.

How has this help to save your time? Do not hesitate to let me know.

Not long ago, my friend and co-founder at Connected Development (CODE), Oludotun Babayemi, exited from the Executive Management of CODE and moved to a non-executive role as member of the Board of Trustees. This means that he will no longer have day to day responsibilities or routine involvement in CODE activities, though he will continue to consult, advise and support me and the management team.

I am delighted to say that Dotun’s exit in a very remarkable way symbolizes the core spirit and value of the CODE brand and Follow The Money movement. The essence of CODE is not only captured in its written goals, mission and vision, but in an unwritten belief in the evolution of personal development.

For those readers who are not conversant with CODE, it is useful to state who we are. Founded in 2012, CODE is a non-government organization (NGO) whose mission is to empower marginalized communities in Africa. We strengthen local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate, and building capacities of citizens on how to hold their government accountable through “Follow The Money”, our governance accountability and transparency initiative.

CODE provides marginalized and vulnerable communities with resources to amplify their voices with independence and integrity while providing these grassroots populations with information that engenders social and economic progress. To enhance effective democratic governance and accountability, we create platforms (mobile and web technologies) that close the feedback loop between citizens and the government. Thus, with global expertise and reach, we focus on community outreach, influencing policies, practices, and knowledge mobilization.

Our commitment to participatory capacity and community building and monitoring and evaluation creates effective and sustainable programs even within the most challenging environments.

Nevertheless, against this backdrop, we have as our fundamental drive, the hunger to evolve into a global brand that provides a platform for participatory governance, and youth development. We want to see a future where today’s CODE leadership shall be replaced tomorrow by a new cadre of civil society leaders who grew up within our ranks, and evolved into strong thought-leaders while we, the old guard, move on to higher national and global duties.

We want to see Next-Generation leaders who are well-equipped for tomorrow, trained from the emerging societal challenges of today.

This is why we recognize the importance of mentoring. I believe that for there to be a seamless transition into the next generation there needs to be a conscious mentorship agenda on the part of thoughtful leaders of today as well as a willingness on the part of today’s followers to enter what I call a “leadership conveyor belt” in order to be transported through the assembly line of Future Leader manufacture.

For instance, before Dotun left the Executive Team, he consciously planned an exit strategy which sought to “recruit and rejig” a replacement team in the CODE programme value chain.

When we started recruiting A – Team staff last year, he planned to have each new member take the pieces of his role in scaling the organization, and he provided support for their various tasks while he made his transition to work with the Board. It was when he saw the success of his transition strategy that he felt convinced that the coast was clear to make the launch up the next rung in the ladder.

For me, it was a fulfillment of the CODE dream – establishing a template for leadership evolution.

It is a situation I can relate to, having experienced a similar transition in my task in my other life at the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC), when I moved from an Executive role as the Communications Director to a non-executive advisory role as member of the Board. Likewise, some day in the future, I will bow out as the Chief Executive of CODE to a non-executive role.

Just like Dotun is doing today, I will have the privilege of being able to step back and watch CODE develop and grow while I explore other opportunities to add value to the society and impact my world.

I believe robust and sustainable transition is the only way we can emphasize and stay committed to the ongoing success of CODE in particular, and of the wider transparency and accountability community in general. We must remain passionate about open-data, technology and citizen participation, as this is the only real doorway into the journey to deepen democracy by empowering more communities with enough knowledge to be able to hold their government accountable.

And this brings me to a very vital point. It took a long time of personal thought and research to come to the conclusion that the future of Nigeria and indeed Africa depends on active participation of civil society in the political process. A democratic state cannot be stable unless it is effective and legitimate, with the respect and support of its citizens.

Civil society is a check, a monitor, but also a vital partner in the quest for this kind of positive relationship between the democratic state and its citizens. Therefore, the best model would be when the civil society, empowered with their developmental experience and capacity, finds itself playing active role in politics.

There are reasons for this conclusion. First of all, the most basic role of civil society is to limit and control the power of the state.  For instance, as is the situation in Nigeria, when a country is emerging from decades of military rule, it needs to find ways to check, monitor, and restrain the power of political leaders and state officials.

Civil society actors serve as a watchdog, and raise public concern about any abuse of power.  They campaign for access to information, including freedom of information laws, and rules and institutions to control corruption. They promote political participation by educating people about their rights and obligations as democratic citizens, and encouraging them to critically examine electoral manifestoes and vote in elections.  They help develop citizens’ skills to work with one another to solve common problems, to debate public issues, and express their views. They play an important role in mediating and helping to resolve conflicts – by adopting bargaining, accommodation and compromise. These are all functions that guarantee a functional, sustainable state.

Secondly, civil society organizations help to develop the other values of democratic life:  tolerance, moderation, compromise, and respect for opposing points of view. And, without this deeper culture of accommodation, democracy cannot be stable. These values cannot simply be taught; they must also be experienced through practice.

So, I see a future where civil society actors-turned politicians shall help to develop programs for democratic civic education in the schools; revise the curricula, rewrite the textbooks, and retrain teachers in order to educate young people about the mistakes of the past and teach them the principles and values of democracy.

Furthermore, because they have ingrained capacity as a result of their experience, these future leaders shall strengthen democracy by providing new forms of interest and solidarity that cut across old forms of tribal, linguistic, religious, and other identity ties.  Democracy cannot be stable if people only associate with others of the same religion or identity.  They will also play the vital role of engineering electoral best practices by ensuring that the voting and vote counting is entirely free, fair, peaceful, and transparent.

Thirdly, political recruitment of today is flawed.  We need a new model to identify and train new types of leaders who have dealt with important public issues and can be recruited to run for political office at all levels and to serve in state and national legislature. To achieve this, civil society mentorship processes of today could become political recruitment platforms of tomorrow.

National Orientation Agency is a Nigerian government agency created in 2005 and tasked with communicating government policy, staying abreast of public opinion and promoting patriotism, national unity, and development of Nigerian society.

Do Nigerians have faith in NOA to build a communication bridge for citizens to interact with the government? Is citizens’ inclusion and engagement in demanding transparency and accountability encouraged? Or should we go ahead and advocate for ourselves liaising with civil societies in ensuring that our voices are heard and sideline this agency and all it stands for because of constant interferences of political bureaucracies in decision making and activities of NOA.

Am a little bit indecisive on what to think about NOA, but not entirely conclusive because of recent development by this agency to partner with civil society organisations in Nigeria. NOA gave an open call for collaboration with CSOs on the 31st of October 2017 at Ibeto Hotel, Abuja where a good number of representatives from different NGOs were in attendance.

The Director-General @GarbaAbari represented by The Director, Planning, research and strategy Dr Bonat J. Tagwai gave a brief review of NOAs five years strategy plans and their ongoing projects was made available to all participants, and full involvement of CSOs in the implementation of this program welcomed.

Some highlight of their activities includes

• A well-structured agency and adequately staffed across the country comprising of National Headquarters, 36 States Directorate, FCT 774 Local Government Offices and  3000 volunteer Corp.
• NOA has visited about 120 LGA and  communities to update them on their activities
• They have interpreted the Freedom of Information Act into 20 languages to ease understanding of the Act and drive citizen mobilization and participation in demanding accountability and transparency from their government.
• Has started a survey of 130 MDAs to engage public institutions
• And have launched NOA FM Radio 97.7 though still test running and ideas will be welcomed on how to utilize this station efficiently.

Civil Societies present participated in group work to explore opportunities for partnerships with Short presentations of each group to highlight areas of collaborations with NOA.

A Cross-Section Of CSOs During The Group work

A Cross-Section Of CSOs During The Group work

The benefit for CSOs to collaborate with NOA was further stressed that based on their staff’s strengths and 3000 volunteers scattered around the country. Ease of carrying out campaigns using this volunteer will be efficient because instead of looking for new hands or travelling to places you don’t know, NOA could provide:

The contacts of their volunteers who are always on the ground in all the state.

Location and addresses of their state offices to assist in working in new terrains.

These, in particular, will assist connected development in further driving their campaigns and growing networks.

A Cross-Section Of CSOs During The Group work

To encourage full involvement and authentic evidence of collaborations, interested Civil Societies should send official letters to the Director-General making reference of this event.

This event was viewed and broadcast on PTV News. 

Hon. Emmanuel Njoku and DG Political, Civic, Ethics and Values Dept. Mrs Ngozi Ekeoba

Connected development as started utilizing this partnership opportunity with NOA as our Program Manager for democracy and governance Hon. Emmanuel Njoku plans on working with NOA in his campaign Engaging Emerging Voters for young people below 18 years in senior secondary two and three respectively.

A little brief of the objective of the campaign by Emmanuel Njoku is to increase voter education among eligible secondary school student. The project hopes to create clubs in secondary school for sustainability across the country and provision of short training on democratic values for members

We anticipate NOA full support in achieving this campaign and ensuring that the younger generation will understand the requirement of leadership and the importance of voting to reach a better outcome in the 2019 elections.

I am not very certain that, Clive Humby, when he boldly declared in 2006 that “Data is the new oil” fully grasped the extent to which this statement will become true a decade down the line. Let us take a look at some of the parallels between oil and data:

•       Both are raw forms of abundantly available resources
•       Both can be drilled, extracted, refined, stored, transported and commodified
•       Both have to be refined to be valuable; in fact, the more refined, the more the value
•       Both have immense controlling power on the economy

In fact, a lot of people have come to the conclusion that data is to the 21st century what oil was to the 18th century. Consider the fact that recently, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft have been listed as the five most lucrative companies in the world. We know that what makes them so lucrative are the services they provide. True – but the main question is: “what services and to whom are these services rendered and at what cost?”. Let me try to help with that – these companies by providing various platforms for people to purchase goods without actually visiting a store, meet people without actually leaving the comfort of our homes, cloud storage that does not require bulky hardware etc. collect, on a daily basis, basic data about where people live, how they think, what they like, what they do etc. So basically, they provide access and collect tons of data from us in return. Then, if you consider that this is data that most governments do not even have and people largely give these out without much prodding, then, it should really give you something to think about. If I am willing to provide strangers with so much data/information about myself, why then should I not become data literate? Why should I not be interested in knowing/learning how these data can be used, by whom and for what purposes and how it can affect me? On a much more general level, why should I not be interested in data that can have a direct impact on my life, whether positive or negative?

Despite having worked at Connected Development for some time, during some conversations, I used to still get stuck at some point, trying to explain how CODE is connected to the data literacy movement. All that has been demystified for me after attending the one week School of Data summer camp (an annual event for individuals and members of the SCODA network to come together and share insights on their current work and open up channels for collaboration) in Tanzania from 23rd to 30th September 2017.

members of the SCODA network at the summer camp

Now, I understand that the most part of the work we do is connected to data literacy; when we teach people in rural communities what financial data is important, how they can access such data, refine it, use it, shape it into newsworthy stories and in the long run, use their interaction with the entire system and processes to ensure their communities are the better for it. Afterall, if people are willing to give total strangers personal data about themselves on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all other social networks, that can be used to put together information about them, why should they not be interested in knowing how much of their commonwealth their governments have decided to spend on healthcare, education, and provision of other social infrastructure and amenities such as potable water, understand how these funds are being spent and follow the money trail. This is what we call Follow The Money and this is why it is important that every citizen, regardless of where they live needs to follow the money.

non-members explain Follow The Money in their own words using the water cycle!

In addition, it was also an opportunity to share what we do at CODE, especially with respect to Follow The Money and how other organizations, individuals, and countries can benefit from this model.

Needless to say that from this, we have people in Haiti, Tanzania, Malawi who are interested in following the money in their countries.

Explaining why and how Follow The Money is a data literacy initiative

Data is abundant around us, data is no longer texts and numbers – data is words, videos, audio, facts, figures. Data is anything that can be used to provide insight on a matter or person or place or situation and since we live in the age of information where these insights can easily be transferred or sold and Data is the currency through which these transactions occur, it is safe then to agree that Data is indeed the new oil. if this is the case, it is time everyone learned how to access, refine and use these data. More important however is the fact that the more people become data literate and use available data, the more evidence there will be for advocating for more data to be open and for data to be more open!

If you are interested in joining a growing community of data enthusiasts who are learning how to use financial data to improve their communities and fight corruption, join us at

iFOLLOWTHEMONEY PLATFORM today!

Today is exactly nine months since we have been experimenting the iFollowTheMoney community and this is a perfect time to write about this community;  what led the Follow the Money Team to the community, why the need for it and what exactly is the future we see to have invested in such a platform.

What is a Community?

Merriam Webster defined community as an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (such as species) in a common location.

With the definition, there are some key elements of a community which are “interacting population” and “in a common place”.

As such, we cannot have an interacting population without a common place.

While reading Babajide Durosaye post on medium about community, I cannot but agree with his definition of a community which he defines as “Communities are networks with shared ideals or demographics, people concentrate on building valuable relationships rather than using each other”.

At Follow the Money, we have community champions in various states and communities in the country and outside of it, we cannot afford to have the kind of community which Babajide defined. Hence, there is a need for us to improvise and find a better way to bring people together in a common place (ifollowthemoney).

The Journey to Follow the Money Community

In the past, Follow the Money Community Reporters (as they are fondly called then) uses WhatsApp as a common place to interact, the WhatsApp group has grown to the point that we had to group them according to geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

We had six groups on WhatsApp and sometimes while waking up (even though I am always on the group at midnight communicating with the night owls amongst the Community Reporters) the user’s end up meeting more than 100 messages on the group which eventually led to us having to losing some of our community reporters. Hence, the need for a better community (common place) to bring people together to interact.

At a point, due to the staff strength of Connected Development as we have only two persons managing the 6 WhatsApp groups, the users and also the social media accounts, so we started missing out relevant contents coming from the community champions on the WhatsApp.

Also, on boarding new users on the platform (WhatsApp) started becoming a problem as we keep on repeating the same on boarding message over and over again.

Was That The Only Reason Why we Have to Switch to Have a Universal Community?

NO, we have a big vision of expanding across Africa as we started receiving an overwhelming request for expansion and we also plan on making Follow the Money a household name by having a movement in all the states in Nigeria while having community champions in all 774 local governments in Nigeria.

Also, we need to have a knowledge sharing platform where anyone who is interested in our work could learn from, connect and collaborate on Follow the Money activities while taking some factors into cognizance – like, where we can have people learning from one other, a platform where we can have a community (movement kind of thing). A place we can have people with a shared interest (Transparency and Accountability in Government in Africa and beyond) and a place people can be motivated to act by learning from the actions of others.

We are more aware that it was because people are not asking questions from our political office holders on how our collective monies have been spent, and that was why we keep on having same corruption narratives.

Alas, we had seen in the past and present when people in government reacted to our request knowing we follow the money (no one wants to be labeled someone who embezzled community project money).

Is That All?

With close to a thousand members,  the community is gradually translating into the largest movement of community champions working on transparency and accountability in their various community., These inspiring members are the intermediaries that are taking the Follow The Money work to local communities, mobilizing them, to engage their various government on basic infrastructure issues.

Do we Have a Requirement for Community Champions?

I still do not know how to answer this question but the most important thing is, a Follow the Money Community Champion is a fire starter. He is someone who thinks something must be done about the gross corruption in governance and he is ready to make an impact in his community by Following The Money. Thus enabling the community to have access to good governance,  improved infrastructures and in the proper sense, an empowered community who can speak for themselves and ask government questions about how their monies are spent.

Just as my friend, Babajide Durosaye (never met or know him o) categorized the community ecosystem in his article, I understand that there are movers of a community and such structure is also expected of a Transparent and Accountability community like ifollowthemoney, but for now – the conversation is just getting started and we hope to grow the community to that level someday soon.

We are in need of more enablers, and you may want to become one too by joining the conversation on Transparency and Accountability on ifollowthemoney which we created for change makers like you!

Have a contribution or clarification? Do not hesitate to leave a comment on the box below.

Photo by Nathaniel Tetteh on Unsplash

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs Goals were built on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities. The goals are interconnected – often the key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another.

The Nigerian Youth SDGS Forum #NGYouthSDGs had a gathering of high-level stakeholders pre-summit in Abuja on July 7, 2017 and I was privileged to represent CODE at this event. The event was hosted by the Ambassador of Denmark, Torben Gettermann at the Switzerland Embassy. The forum brought together Civic Organizations and Youth Networks, working to reach the sustainable  goals.

The Danish Ambassador gave the opening remark and welcomed all stakeholders present. He said “there is no single of the 17 goals that are not related to one another, that it’s only by achieving them all only then we can say our mission is accomplished.  The Ambassador all so stated and I quote  “The SDGs, are they ambitious?  Yes they are.  Are they over-ambitious?  No.  Are they attainable?   Absolutely”

Uche Onyinye of TheirWorld.UK spoke on the Nigeria Future – in relation to achieving the SGDs. She explained the goals for all parties involved is the same toward achieving the goals. She went further to explain that the SDGs are timed based goals and we have few years (13 years) to see these goals come to life. She ended by stating that SDGs and Nigeria’s future are intertwined, they can’t be separated.

It was quite fascinating for me to see that various organisations are already building programs and projects around achieving the SDGs. For instance, Serah Makka, Country director for ONE Campaign added that Accountability is the life of democracy and to achieve SDGs, young people have to be active in civic engagement.  She spoke on ONE Campaign effort in education and eliminating poverty and making health and agriculture a focus of work.  Mr Kingsley from Plan International explained how they work with the  grassroot community to impact the young people on SDGs.  Chibugo Okafor with Wellbeing Africa explained their focus on health awareness using innovative adolescents program e.g teaching them general hygeine etc will promote and improve the SDGs. For most of these organizations, working with young people in achieving the various goal interest was a major strength for example  Ijeoma Idika Okorie of Teenz Global Foundation,who works with teenagers in high schools, stated that ownership of ideas through partnership and dedication towards SDGs is key to success in Nigeria.

The Africa Open Data Conference which came up last week (17th to 21st of July) was here and gone, but to me, the conference was overrated. Aside from the fact that the conference was loosely planned as the final agenda was not up until after the first day of the event was out of sight.

The site visitation was unwelcoming with many events on Eventbrite and I end up struggling to register for the session as I have to open more than five tabs to check event and register for what will interest me while thinking of the Uber cost too. But well, that is by the way.

The five days event witness different data experts from various fields and walks of life while not leaving behind the pro and the pre data users.

One of the biggest takeaway from the event is the commitment by the government of Ghana with prominent comment from the minister of Communication who announces the interoperability plan to join data for development across government.

As good as this sounds, the Nigerian in me would not agree to that kind of commitment.  No No, I do not want to sound pessimistic, but I did have some point to backup my cynical argument.

Just on the 31st January 2017, the Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia while talking about the Right to Information (RTI) bill and the government’s resolve to fight corruption at the Good Corporate Governance Initiative. He stated that “we are going to push the parliament to make necessary amendments, and if I had it my way, it should be passed within 100 days of this government”.

This is July, and the government is yet to pass the bill.

Furthermore, the Minister for Information on 3rd of May 2017 during the International Press Freedom Day made a declaration on behalf of the government. He said that “We have sent the Right to Information (RTI) Bill to the Parliament, it is in there that in Parliament Session of May to July 2017, the RTI bill will be before them for debate and passage. It is non-negotiable”  while it is public knowledge that the parliament is scheduled to rise on 2nd August 2017, it should be noted that the bill has been negotiated out as a non-priority draft bill.

It is exciting to see the president of Ghana HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo also joining his voice to the commitment of his cabinet as he said that Ghana is committed to making full use of#opendata. It must work in Ghana for the benefit of the citizens

While also noting that he said “The implementation of these recommendations is driving our open data initiative, as we work also towards achieving the SDGs. It is the intention of government also to ensure the long overdue passage of the Right to Information Bill by Parliament” he said.

He said the government was strengthening the data ecosystem, establishing strategic partnerships, and creating a harmonized policy and enabling environment for Open Data.Africa’s advancement and sustainable development would materialize when the Continent leverages on the vast and integrated opportunities offered by the employment of information and data, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has noted.

But, as much as I would have loved to be excited by the promises of the moon by these politicians, the Nigerian in me tells me that these guys cannot be trusted and hence, the only major takeaway from the conference which is the government commitment is overrated.

Even if I should distrust the Nigerian in me which would leave me with the optimistic option that the government of Ghana would be passing the bill, it should be noted that the Nigerian Freedom of Information  Act which was passed in 2011, is still suffering from numerous challenges.

Most access to information laws in the sub-Saharan region still have exemptions limiting implementation #AODC17

And also, in terms of the usage of the FOI bill for transparency and accountability, it should be noted that citizens are so busy trying to survive that they don’t have time to follow their money.

As a data for development users, Follow the money isn’t only about government funds, grants and debts should also be followed. #AODC17 #AODC2017 #ATI #OPENCONTRACTING

Although I will rate the conference below average, I learned some fundamental lessons which I will love to share with readers, and they are;

• The revolution of data is that citizens have the power to speak.
• When a community has data, they have power.
• Collaboration in data collections and use of data must be oriented with the citizens and not the government.
• Many decisions have been made by the government, like “where do government build public health care” and these are usually political decisions and not decisions backup by data.
• We have inefficient use of resources in Africa because decisions are not made based on data.
• Questions like, how can we make government more responsible and efficient in the distribution of fertilizers is a question which can be answered by data, and that is if the government takes data seriously.
• Duplication of data collection effort should be mitigated with the use of central database and
• Data must be shared with within data players for active collaborations.

As a Follow the Money enthusiast, I am glad to be a part of this event as networking was made to build the followership and adaptability of follow the money model as a tool for transparency and accountability in and outside of Africa.

The idea of a National Health Insurance Scheme in Nigeria was first attempted in 1962 under the leadership of the then Minister of Health, Dr M.A Majekodunmi. In the last four decades, the fight to have a health insurance system that works has been an arduous journey of sorts, fraught with plenty complexities and peculiarities.

The overarching idea behind a health insurance scheme is to improve the health of all Nigerians at an affordable cost. In 2016, the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf mentioned that in the 12 years of the scheme’s existence, after it was officially signed into law in 2005 by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the scheme covers only about 1% of Nigerians. To say that this is a failure would be stating things mildly. This inability and ineffectiveness as well as the shroud of corruption that has covered the scheme from its inception are major factors that have led to the call for the repeal of the NHIS Act and the enactment of a new Act in its place. One of the major differences now in the Act is the fact that states can now have their own health insurance schemes. This has already resulted in a number of states such as Lagos, Cross River, Kwara, Kano etc signing their state Health Insurance Acts into law. This fragmentation of the pool has both its pros and cons. The pros being that with states being in charge, desired healthcare services will now become a step closer to the people while the cons will be that the pool of funds will have been fragmented, meaning that states have to maneuver whatever financing mechanism possible to get as much money as they can into the funding pool. Some of the strategies that are being employed by some of the states include: making the scheme compulsory for all state residents, compulsory solidarity contributions from residents who are already on private health insurance schemes, sourcing for lump sum contributions from philanthropists etc.

While all of these sound very interesting, one major question that has been on the lips of development enthusiasts is “will these laws and the inherent taxation of the people translate to better health services for the people? Will it lead to the overarching goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria? Will the state governments do a better job of providing the necessary social infrastructure? Will the social contract between the people and the government be strengthened in this new arrangement?”

speaking in a panel session at the event

These are a few of the questions we asked at a recent experience sharing meeting on health insurance for selected states in Nigeria. The meeting which was hosted by Nigeria health Watch and Christian Aid brought together state officials, media personnel, Civil society organisations working in the health space as well as members of the donor community

As much as we may not have answers to some of these questions now because they will only be answered in time as the schemes kick off in the states, we can however make a few postulations:

1. The above questions can only be answered with a YES if the state governments beef up the existing health facilities and strengthen the health systems within the states. This should also be accompanied by appropriate accountability mechanisms to ensure that the monies pooled are utilized as they should be and to the fullest benefit of the people.
2. The states should not see the Health Insurance scheme as just another method of revenue generation or another political mandate to be checked on a list or as a tool for campaigning in 2019. Rather, the programs and activities of the scheme should have the health of the people at its core.
3. The National Health Insurance Agency needs to strengthen its oversight and regulatory responsibility to ensure that the Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) do not run amok and appropriate sanctions be put in place and implemented for defaulters.
4. Most importantly is the fact that the states need to understand that for the scheme to work, a good part of the state budgets need to be committed to the health sector to beef up capital health infrastructure at both the state and Primary Health care levels and it should be clear that the funds from the health insurance pool are not meant for infrastructural development.
5. Finally, the state governments need to understand that the citizens are major stakeholders in this process as such, they must be carried along every step of the way; they should be able to contribute to the entire decision making process, not just making monetary contributions, there should be a system for addressing the inquiries, complaints and grievances of the people as they arise and the state governments must ensure that they are as responsive as they can be in this regard.