I recently presented my paper at ICEGOV 2025 in Abuja, my first time at the conference and ICEGOV’s first time in West Africa. My paper “Inclusion by Design or Assumption? Contextualising Nigeria’s Digital Policy through its Mobile Banking Experience” was shortlisted for Best Research Paper, which was a lovely surprise. ICEGOV’s mix of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners made it a valuable space for grounded conversations about digital governance.
What My Study Found
My work examined how interface design (for example, the design of mobile applications) leads to exclusion among users with functional low-literacy (FXI) in Nigeria and whether national digital-governance frameworks account for this.
A few clear patterns emerged:
- Exclusion often happens at the interface, not from lack of access or skills.
- Policies such as the CBN’s mobile-money guidelines and the DLGF focus on competencies, but say little about usability or design assumptions that shape real user experience.
- Policies focus heavily on “teaching” digital literacy in schools, hence excluding adults with functional low literacy.
- This creates a gap between policy intentions and everyday interaction realities.
- The study highlights the need to contextualise digital-literacy and interface-governance frameworks and policies so they reflect local contexts and the needs of marginalised groups.
It was encouraging that the topic opened thoughtful conversations at ICEGOV, given interface-level exclusion is rarely centred in governance discussions.
Publication Update
The paper will appear in the ICEGOV 2025 Springer LNIC proceedings, and I’ll share the link once it’s available.
