NGO holds confab on FOI Act

A non-governmental organisation, Right to Know (R2K) will today begin an annual conference for experience sharing on the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in Nigeria. According to a statement by the Programs Director, Paul Yao Ahiave, the NGO hopes to use the conference in Abuja to focus on greater accountability in public […]

A non-governmental organisation, Right to Know (R2K) will today begin an annual conference for experience sharing on the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in Nigeria.

According to a statement by the Programs Director, Paul Yao Ahiave, the NGO hopes to use the conference in Abuja to focus on greater accountability in public service and citizen participation sustainably in the country through the Act.

The event, which is in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, will be an avenue for increasing accountability and citizen’s participation in public affairs through the six year old law, since its enactment in 2011.

According to Ahiave, it will also serve in “deepening and focalizing training and capacity building on MDA’s through targeted approach and contextualizing FOI within mandate specific issues particular to each target public institution, and presenting the Act as a veritable tool for realizing effective and efficient delivery.”

To this end, public institutions lauded for progressively implementing the FOI Act: the Bureau for Public Service Reforms (BPSR) and Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) are expected to share their experiences, along with other actors.