Citizen Data Scientist Blaise Aboh of Orodata is our #BellaNaijaMCM this Week!

In Nigeria, getting access to data or information on government services, activities, policies and expenditures, is a herculean task – policies are most times made without citizens’ input, processes are either not communicated at all or not done efficiently, and several promises have gone unfulfilled.

Our #BellaNaijaMCM this week Blaise Aboh is the founding partner of Orodata Science Nigeria (OSN), an organisation dedicated to solving the above problem.

Orodata is “a Civic Tech organization using Open Data, Data Visualization and related methodologies to democratize public information towards transparency and citizen inclusion.”

OSN was initially known as Election Data Analytics and Visualization (EDAV), which was the name of its first data project in 2014 in order provide answers to key questions citizens had on electoral activities and processes using real time social media data analysis and historical election data.

Through infographics storytelling and visual analysis, OSN creatively communicates key policies and issues in Nigeria in order to foster ease of access to information, drive accountability, transparency and most significantly citizen inclusion.

Orodata also runs OrodataEd, which “offers in-depth training, workshops, and seminars on data discovery, data visualization, data democratization, and methods for data analysis.”

Blaise is also the Academy Lead at Code for Nigeria and has facilitated trainings on data journalism, as well as for government agencies on how open data adds economic value, promotes transparency, and improves citizen engagement with government.

He’s also led trainings for Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) across the continent.

Blaise has also trained over 80 Residential Information Communication Officers in government MDAs under the European Union (EU) Support to Federal Governance Reform Program (SUFEGOR) by Bureau for Public Service Reform (BPSR) “to build capacity to communicate and interpret government policies and data efficiently and effectively in promoting good governance, transparency and accountability using modern techniques of communication with emphasis on the use of infographics.”

Blaise is a 2016 LEAP Africa Social Innovation Programme Fellow. He is also one of the people selected for the 2019 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Programme.

He was also a Data Visualisation and Design Consultant for BudgIT and was partner for an online outdoor advertising start-up company – Vacantboards (VB).

He cut his teeth in entrepreneurship, time and money management while trading in one of his father’s shops in the famous Alaba market in Lagos.

Blaise has a B.Sc in Metallurgical/Materials Engineering and has taken courses in Stanford, Columbia University, and the University of Texas.

We celebrate Blaise for his work in democratising information on government’s services, activities, policies and expenditures.