A Central Data-base In Nigeria

For those who know,what will it actually take to create a central computer data-base for local goverments in nigeria?

I beg your pardon, but creating a central database for local governments in nigeria takes much much more than what your demo portrays. I think the what should be asked of the poster is to get an insight into the purpose(s) the central database would seek to meet. The following approach can guide the user into making a more directed enquiries related to his initial question:


What is the scope of local governments that will participate in such 'central database project'. All local goverment within a specific city, all LGs within a state, all LGs within a region (South South for instance) or all LGs across the nation (my knowleldge of the last count was 774 - don't know if this is still valid). The scope would determine the complexity and feasibility of your deployment.

Secondly, what sort of information would be held in such central database and how dynamic would this information be. Considering the normal functions of a LG to include generating internal revenue, registration or births and deaths, children immunisation, LG workers information, LG project information etc, you would need to get a definitive listing of the type of information that would be (or is viable) to store in such 'central database'.

How would this information be accessed. Would this be made available to anyone that needs access on a pro bono basis, to pre-registered users or to workers of the LGs alone. Would a fee be charged. Would there be certain sensitive information that would need an added identity verification before access can be granted. These are just few access scenarios and you might be able to ask much more in this regards.

What infrastructure would be needed to support such central database and what are the reliability expectations  - in the minimum, you would be looking at a database server (or servers), a front end web server or servers), and direcctory infrastructure server. These would make up the server infrastructure. Then you would have to consider the network infrastructure - switches, routers, vsat to connect the different LG sites (if dispersed) that would participate in such project. Storage infrastructuure - SAN, NAS to handle storage provisioning and access if you 'central database' would eventually be holding a tremendous amount of data. In terms of reliability or disaster recoverability, you would consider deploying a database cluster, a load balanced front end web server to ensure that your infrastructure can easily and quickly recover from critical system failures with little impact to users.


This is not an attempt to give you a full fledge requirements proposition but just a gudiance on the kind of questions you should  be asking. What i've mentioned so far is not an exhaustive list of requirements but a start in the right direction. I've embarked on something similar for a state government in the south south some years back, the requirements analysis alone took between 4-6 months of meeting with the various stakeholders, looking at existing processes, future processes etc. in the end the political will to complete the project wasn't readily forthcoming and had to be abandoned at mid-implementation stage. 

Besides my love for ensuring ICT projects are started on the right note, it's good to stress that the way you ask questions determines who answers your questions and the sort of answers you get.  I won't necessarily give you a contact number for further communications or pretend to have a demo to fulfil your requirements (which is definitely not clear at this stage)  but i'm willing to help provide guidance (to the best of my ability) right here on nairaland pages (and maybe beyond where necessary) as to how you might get off on this project. Regards