📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
Open source software adoption offers Nigerian government ministries potential cost savings, greater software customisability, and reduced dependence on foreign proprietary vendors, but its strategic implementation requires careful policy design and risk management. This study professionally reviews the state of open source software adoption policies in Nigerian federal government ministries, evaluating existing policies against international best practice frameworks and identifying implementation barriers. A document analysis and interview methodology was applied, reviewing NITDA OSS adoption guidelines, ministry ICT procurement policies, and international open source government policy frameworks from the EU, South Africa, and India, combined with structured interviews of 30 IT policy officers and procurement managers across five federal ministries. Analysis dimensions include policy coverage of OSS in procurement, security review processes, vendor support arrangements, interoperability standards, and staff training provisions. Descriptive and comparative policy analysis were applied. Available OSS policy literature from Nigerian government contexts identifies absence of a government-wide OSS migration strategy, procurement officer unfamiliarity with open source licensing models, and lack of locally available OSS technical support as dominant adoption barriers. The Technology Governance Framework and the Open Source Maturity Model provide the professional reference. Findings reveal fragmented, inconsistent OSS policies across ministries with no unified national government OSS strategy. Recommendations address a NITDA-led National Government OSS Policy framework, ministry-level OSS readiness assessments, and open source technical support capacity building. Keywords: open source software, government ICT policy, federal ministries, NITDA, Nigeria.
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