On the recently released United Nations Global E-Government Survey of 2012, Nigeria scored 0.2676 and ranked 162 out of 190 countries, dropping from 150 which was its position in the 2010 edition of the survey.

The survey, which measures the capacity and the willingness of governments to deploy Information and Communications Technology in improving knowledge and information in the service of the citizen, was conducted by the Division for Public Administration and Development Management, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The report, which was released on March 6, noted that e-government initiatives, however sophisticated were unlikely to contribute significantly to development if they reached only the privileged few.

Therefore, not focusing on sophistication, the survey examined the institutional framework for e-government and found that the presence of a national coordinating authority can help overcome internal barriers and focus minds on integrated responses to citizen concerns.

In keeping with its conceptual framework of human development, the survey assessed the websites and communication platforms of Ministries/Department of Health, Education, Social Welfare, Labour and Finance of member countries, which are representative of the services citizens require most from the government.

Each ministerial site was assessed on the same set of questions.

On all the indices used during the survey, including online services index, infrastructure index, human capital index, and e-participation index, Nigeria scored below world average.

Nigeria’s overall index score had risen from 0.225 in 2003 to 0.3063 in 2008 but has dropped steadily since then.

Some of the factors that determined countries’ overall scores were the existence of a national website and ministerial websites; existence of a one-stop-shop national portal; existence of a Head of State website; citizen feedback on the national strategy, policies and e-services; provision for publishing the results of citizen feedback; archive on responses by government to citizen’s questions, queries and inputs and news and/or updates on government policies.

On the global ranking, South Korea retained its first position from the previous ranking in 2010, Netherlands moved up to the second position from the fifth, while United Kingdom moved up to the third position from the fourth.

United States and Canada that placed second and third in the 2010 survey, slipped to the fifth and eleventh positions in that order, while Niger, Chad and Somalia placed 188th , 189th and 190th respectively.

In Africa, the island country, Seychelles, had the best score, with Mauritius and South Africa placing second and third respectively, while Nigeria placed 30th among 54 African countries.

However, the survey had no records for Central African Republic, Guinea and Libya.