As the world marks World Development Information Day, Nigeria faces a pressing challenge, which is the lack of open, reliable, and easily accessible environmental data, which continues to hinder informed decision-making, citizen participation, and sustainable development efforts across the country.

Development Diaries reports that the theme for the 2025 commemoration is ‘Ensuring access to environmental information in the digital age’.

Many Nigerian citizens still contend with underdevelopment: limited access to clean water (only about 28.4 percent had access in 2021), weak environmental data systems and digital divides that hamper the promise of this era.

In the digital age, the possibility of open, timely, and accessible environmental information presents one of the most powerful avenues for empowerment and improved development outcomes.

However, the reality in Nigeria is that access to environmental information remains constrained.

A recent report by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) highlights that despite constitutional and statutory frameworks (such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Climate Change Act 2021), many institutions are reluctant to disclose relevant data, and citizens often lack the capacity or digital connectivity to demand and use it.

Data from the International Trade Administration shows that Nigeria’s digital economy is expanding, with broadband penetration around 43.5 percent and over 163 million internet users, but there is still a major gap between connectivity and meaningful access to environmental data that affects people’s health, livelihoods and livelihoods of communities.

Without bridging that gap, development risks being uneven and unsustainable.

If the ultimate objective of development is to bring sustained improvement in the well-being of individuals and to ensure benefits reach all, not just a privileged few, then a failure to provide accessible environmental information means we are failing in that mission.

For Nigeria, tackling major environmental challenges such as deforestation, air and water pollution, erosion, climate-change impacts demands that citizens, communities, researchers and authorities be equipped with the timely, reliable, and understandable information required to participate meaningfully in decisions about their environments.

On this World Development Information Day, we call on the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the digital-policy agency National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and all levels of government to maintain open, user-friendly online portals for real-time environmental data, from air and water quality to deforestation and climate risks, while ensuring proactive disclosure in line with the Freedom of Information Act.

Also, governments at all levels should invest in digital infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, to expand broadband access and support community ICT centres.