Firm Launches Citizens’ Demand Website To Deepen OGP

A Kaduna-based Information Technology organisation, Ihifix Technologies, has inaugurated a citizens’ demand website and mobile application to deepen Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Kaduna State.
The application website, https://citizensdemand.org/ was inaugurated in Kaduna, during the Ihifix Digital Summit for Development, with the theme, “Leveraging Digital Technologies for Sustaining the Gains of OGP”.
The Tide Source  reports that the summit was organised in collaboration with Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development (CALPED) and OGP Technical Working Group on Citizens Engagement.
The event was supported by the Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn, a governance programme of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Ihifix Team Lead, Mr Emmanuel Adikpe, explained that the website and mobile application were designed in partnership with CALPED to enable citizens to upload their needs with a view to inform the budget.
Adikpe said applications developed in line with the principle of OGP, were intended to deepen citizens engagement in governance by ensuring that their voices were heard, and needs captured in the state budget.
According to him, citizen participation is critical in ensuring transparency and accountability in governance and a key attribute of good governance, critical to Nigeria’s development.
He also explained that the effort was to deploy digital technology to deepen citizens’ engagement in the governance process, particularly the Community Development Charter (CDC).