Assessing Nigeria’s Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Readiness Index

Abstract

Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GDI) or Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) plays a vital role in developmental activities, whether in natural resource management or in socio-economic development. The GDI/SDI-readiness approach aims to measure the extent to which countries are prepared to deliver geographical information. It evaluates whether a country is ready to embrace the development of a National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI) within a specific administrative unit, such as a nation. This study assesses the SDI readiness index of Nigeria for the year 2025. Primary data, supplemented with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) 2018 data, were collected for the multi-criteria analysis used to calculate Nigeria's GDI/SDI readiness index for 2024. The results revealed that for the year 2024, Nigeria had a GDI/SDI readiness index of 0.8434 (84%), higher than 0.58 obtained for 2017. Although Nigeria has made some strides toward developing its own National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI), the country still faces numerous challenges in developing and implementing an effective NGDI.