Nigeria soft-launches one portal for federal services
The Government Service Portal is meant to replace a maze of agency websites with a single gateway. Pioneer agencies go first, before a nationwide rollout.
Nigeria's federal government soft-launched the Government Service Portal (GSP) on 28 July, a single online gateway through which citizens, non-citizens and businesses can find, request and use services from ministries, departments and agencies.
The portal was developed by Galaxy Backbone, the state-owned ICT infrastructure company, with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Start small, then scale
The soft launch onboards a group of pioneer agencies so that the user experience can be evaluated and improved before the platform is deployed nationwide, Voice of Nigeria reported. In user acceptance testing, more than 80 per cent of 184 participants described the portal as user-friendly, accessible and easy to navigate.
The hard part of any single portal is behind the front page: getting agencies to connect their back-office systems, agree data standards and share records, so that a service is completed rather than just listed. A phased start with pioneer agencies is the right way to find those problems early.
Research desk, Online
Stories by the IQGov research desk are written from public documents, official data and on-record statements, which are listed and linked at the end of each piece.
