UI-NADA is a metadata repository created at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria to provide open access to research data and improve knowledge management in African universities. It has grown significantly since launching in 2015, with increasing numbers of views and downloads. However, sustainable partnerships and additional resources are still needed to maintain UI-NADA long-term and expand its role in supporting evidence-based policymaking across Africa.

1. BUILDINGA SUSTAINABLE OPEN
METADATAREPOSITORY IN AFRICAN
UNIVERSITIES: UI-NADA, UNIVERSITY OF
IBADAN, NIGERIA
Olawale Emmanuel Olayide, PhD
Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Development
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3151-0807
waleolayide@yahoo.com, oe.olayide@ui.edu.ng;
+2348035973449
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Metadata in Africa: Open Access, Challenges, and
Opportunities
• What it takes to build UI-NADA
• Measuring progress and impacts of UI-NADA
• What would be needed to sustain UI-NADA
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• Acknowledgements
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

3. Introduction
• Universities are knowledge management centres
• The “universe” of culture, practices and theories
• African historical knowledge of oral tradition (tales,
Forklores, etc) predates
• Progress in African literature and documentation (written
tradition) have been made
• Development of libraries & archives are early comers
• Transformation to open source wares and internet-based
applications, including cloud and distributed computing
are new and emerging trends in Africa
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

4. Introduction…2
• Adequate data is required for effective knowledge
management.
• Dataset can be conceived as a commodity (commercialization,
copyrighted or free source or creative commons)
• Knowledge management of metadata could lend itself to the
following:
Reuse
Reduce
Recycle
Re-invent
Reposition
Reproducible
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

5. Metadata in Africa: Open Access
• Open Access is a global trend, a movement that is
already more 20 years old
• Open access to data means free availability on the public
internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy,
distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these
articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to
software, or use them for any other lawful purpose,
without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than
those inseparable from gaining access to the internet
itself - Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI)
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

6. Metadata in Africa: Challenges
• The constraints on reproduction and distribution, and the
only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give
authors control over the integrity of their work and the
right to be properly acknowledged and cited
• It has become more pressing because of the numerous
opportunities provided by the internet in developing
repositories (archives) – band wagon effect or left behind
• Limited e-infrastructure in Africa (Internet penetration and
electricity)
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

7. Metadata in Africa: Opportunities
• Promote research, teaching & learning
• Less digitizing of hardcopies
• Expensive but cost saving and cost sharing
• It can help to harvest data from very distributed or dispersed
sources and make data much more discoverable
• Effective, impactful and ‘massive’
Many outlets are now available and accessible: ResearchGate,
Google Scholar Citations, Scopus, ScienceDirect, DSpace,
Dropbox, Nesstar Publisher, NADA, etc
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

8. Data as Increasingly FAIR Digital
Objects
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

9. Building an Institutional Metadata Repository:
UI-NADA
A formidable team “building” Arranging the “bricks”?
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

10. Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017
University of Ibadan Data Archive
Source: http://nada.ui.edu.ng/

11. The Purpose
• The purpose of the University of Ibadan Data Archive and
Documentation Platform (UI-DADP) is to curate data and
provide open access for survey data users for evidence-
based policy formulation and sustainable development
planning and to serve as a model for the Nigerian
University system
• It is also intended to complement macro-data archiving
and documentation in the Nigerian Statistical System
(NSA)
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

12. The Progress
• The UI-NADA has recorded phenomenal web hits since it
was launched in April 2015.
• For instance, the total number of views increased from
995 in June 2015 to 11,295 in May 2016, and 25,997 in
March 2017.
• Similarly, the number of downloads increased from 211 in
June 2015 to 5,988 in in May 2016, and 8723 in March
2017 (see Figures 1 and 2).
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

13. Some Trends and Impacts
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017
AWS ASM EBSD GE OHS VPT
2701
4893
3607 3541
4493
6762
351
2443
2143
507
2747
532
Number of Views and Downloads on UI-NADA (March 2017)
Views Downloads

14. Some Trends and Impacts…2
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017
AWS ASM EBSD GE OHS VPT AVG
13
50
59
14
61
8
34
Percentage Downloads from UI-NADA (March 2017)

15. Quick Wins
• The UI-DADP is potentially a veritable teaching and
research platform for tracking usability of research data
and area of interests on development issues
• It offers opportunity for innovative research and feedbacks
• It also underscores the potentials for development of
workable policy framework on data archiving and
documentation in Nigerian (Africa) University System
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

16. Some Benefits
• Visibility: In sight on website
• Archiving: storage and retrieval
Research: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Re-invent,
Reposition, and Reproducible
• Impact: Making a difference
• Ranking: Global competitiveness
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

17. Ranking Web of Universities – Africa (2016)
Source: http://www.webometrics.info/en/Africa
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

18. Webometrics Ranking
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

19. Sustainability Outlook: Partnerships
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

20. Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

21. Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

22. Future activities & collaboration
• Upload additional metadata on the repository
• Link the publications and DOIs to ORCID (DataCite)
• Data analysis with R, STATA, SPSS, MYSQL (front-end or
back-end)
• Cloning of OAR on NADA: Create a NADA website that
exposes the datasets through the Invenio REST API
(oar.ui.edu.ng)
• See more collaborations and opportunities for capacity
development
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

23. Conclusion
• Africa knowledge management system has transited from
oral tradition to documentation and archiving using the
internet resources with the universities playing significant
roles
• Institutional and internationalisation policy frameworks are
drivers of change in data initiatives Africa
• Impacts are being generated through visibility and
recognition
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

24. Recommendations
• Most of the universities in Africa want to be world-class. Hence,
catching-up would be required in order to compete favourably
in the global space.
• Uniqueness and relevance should be more important in the
competitive space that seeks to promote FAIR (Findable,
Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data
• There is need for networking of the institutions (south-south &
north-south) while maintaining individual identity and mandate.
• Deployment resources and enhancement of partnerships are
required for sustainable metadata repository in Africa
Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017

25. Dr Olawale E. Olayide, Data Initiatives in Africa 2017
ADP/PARIS21
Accelerated Data Program
Acknowledgments
Supported by:
Sponsored by: