The Federal Government of Nigeria has launched the Nigerian Web Design Standards (NWDS) as part of efforts to improve the digital experience of citizens when using government websites.
This new framework, introduced under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, is designed to ensure that all public service websites are accessible, user-friendly, and focused on citizen needs.
During the launch, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, explained why the framework is necessary.
He said, “As a country with a very very low trust level in society. As a country where 70% of our people are under the age of 30. As a country with average age of 16.7 16.9 the average age of our country. You can see how well youthful we are as a nation. As a country that is adding 5 million new people every year. There’s no other pathway to us being able to serve our people better than ensuring that we have clear standards and frameworks for how web platforms are used within government.”
The initiative is expected to encourage more effective delivery of public services online, which supports digital inclusion, transparency, and better access to government resources.
The digital economy in Nigeria continues to expand, and aligning web platforms with consistent design standards is seen as a way to build public trust and increase usage.
Private sector backing has also come into the picture. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Chairman of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, highlighted the vision behind the project.
He said, “The whole idea of digital technology is that say for instance you can go into one website and from that single website you should be able to access all 50 ministries that they in Nigeria you should be able to access all the uh products and services that the Nigerian government you know has to provide to the public. So how do you go about doing that? 230 million Nigerians half of us have access to the internet or almost half of us soon maybe it could be 75%. That way we can go from this story of low trust, I don’t get what I want to a story of high trust and you know what I get I like.”
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) will handle implementation across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
According to Kashifu Abdullahi, Director General of NITDA, “Today we are in a digital age where digital is a lifestyle. Our citizens are online. Therefore, government needs to meet the citizens online. The only way government can meet citizens online is by providing this kind of channel, the web app channel so that people can meet the government.”
The NWDS aims to create an efficient and responsive digital government. This development was reported by Channels Television News.
