Assessment of Knowledge Management Systems in Nigerian Public Sector Ministries

This study assessed the deployment and effectiveness of knowledge management systems in selected Nigerian federal ministries, focusing on the Ministries of Education, Health, and Finance in Abuja. Knowledge management systems are intended to facilitate the systematic capture, storage, retrieval, and sharing of institutional knowledge within public sector organisations. A qualitative case study design was employed, and data were gathered from knowledge management officers, directors of information systems, and information professionals in the three ministries through in-depth interviews and document analysis. Findings revealed that formal knowledge management systems were either absent or nascent in all three ministries. Knowledge was managed primarily through email archives and shared network drives without formal taxonomies or governance frameworks. Staff mobility and poor documentation practices resulted in significant institutional memory losses. The study recommended the development of knowledge management policies, the appointment of chief knowledge officers, and the deployment of scalable enterprise knowledge management platforms aligned with each ministry's operational mandate. Keywords: knowledge management systems, public sector, federal ministries, Nigeria, institutional memory.