SDI: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR FEDERAL STATE DEVELOPING 
COUNTRIES (Case of Nigeria) 
O. A. Ogundele 3, *, O.S. Somefun b 
d Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Survey (RECTAS), RM.B. 5545, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; 
b Department of Geo-Informatics, International Institute for Geo-Information and Earth Observation (ITC), 
Hengelosestraat 99, 7500 AA, Enschede, The Netherlands - 
zinmanship@yahoo.co.uk, ogundelel6993@alumni.itc.nl, somefunl7070@itc.nl, lsomefun@yahoo.com 
Commission VII, WG VII/7 
KEY WORDS: Spatial Information, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), Geo-Information System (GIS), Decentralization, Geo- 
Information Management 
ABSTRACT 
Implementation of SDIs in inherently complex, tension arises from various sources including the need for consensus on standards for 
example between federal and local agencies(Georgiadou et al., 2007). Despite the numerous benefits of SDI, there are still several 
failure of the project(Georgiadou and Harvey, 2007) and most of these failures are in developing countries. Factors affecting such 
failures include lack of technology to handle enormous data, financial constrains and many other socio-economic constraints. More 
so, there are other underlying factors that have effect on implementation of SDI. One of such factors is the system and structure of 
governance in the country. A decentralized system brings service closer to the community and also devolves control to the local level. 
This has a vital implication on SDI implementation and service delivery within the system. It is obvious that system of governance 
can either facilitate of mitigate against a successful implementation of SDI mostly in developing countries. Nigeria as a developing 
country is faced with great challenges in implementing NSDI in its present unitary system of government. A look into the prospect 
and challenges of SDI in the context of decentralization system of governance in Nigeria can aids proper implementation plans of 
SDIs at all levels of governance, thereby boosting its chance of success. The findings however can be generalized to many 
developing countries presently operating under decentralization policy. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
Designing decentralization policy is very difficult in any 
country because decentralization can affect many aspects of 
public sector performance and generate wide range of outcomes. 
But it is particularly difficult in developing countries because 
institutions, information, and capacity are all very weak 
(Litvack et al., 1998). There seems to be gap created in public 
multi-level organizations and governance with improper 
implemented decentralization policy, and also that weak 
information system can contribute to unsuccessful decentralized 
system. Therefore it can be said that good information 
management strategies play a vital role in improving 
decentralized public organization. But we should not be quick to 
conclude on information system as a magic tool to improve 
these multi-level systems. Otherwise it could be assumed that 
since most early decentralization policies are silent on 
information management, there is one of the greatest pitfalls in 
most developing countries with Federal State System. 
Geo-Information Management System has been very useful in 
improving various organizations. Geo-information (GI) public 
organizations have benefited from the evolution of Information 
and Communication Technology and it has become the base for 
business processes, most especially now that the concept of 
Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is prevalent. But how can GIS 
fits into Institutional framework that is based on 
decentralization policy? How can NSDI be implemented in a 
Federal State System of governance? How will GI organizations 
that exist in such system successfully embed and use GIS 
without jeopardizing its decentralized structure. 
These are most of the questions confronting developing 
countries in Africa, Latin-America and Asia that has embarked 
on implementing information infrastructure. Most of the 
decentralization policies being used in public organizations in 
federal state developing countries have not taken care of issues 
of information management. Therefore it constitutes great 
problem to implement SDI both at regional level and National 
level. This paper is focused on implementation of SDI in 
developing countries that operates on Federal States. We made 
attempt to find out the prospects of having SDI in such 
countries and also various challenges that can make it more 
difficult to implement using Nigeria as a case for developing 
countries. We also consider the challenges of using Information 
Management to fill gaps created in Geo-information 
organizations in developing countries due to dilemmas in 
decentralization policies. 
Nigeria is a Federal State country that is also a developing 
country facing challenges of managing its spatial data as its GIS 
grows from one stage to another. Each State in the country is 
implementing various information facilities. Each of them 
claiming autonomy based on Local Government Policy of 1976 
as included in the country’s 1999 constitution. Although the 
country now has GI policy, but the NSDI has not been 
established. States like Lagos has been trying to develop its GIS 
and many other States have not reached such stage. So, the 
problem is not only with the National level of SDI but also how 
* Corresponding author. Ogundele O. A. zinmanship@yahoo.co.uk 
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