A presentation given via Skype at Kohacon 10 in Wellington, New Zealand

1. Koha Uptake in Nigeria: Prospects
and Challenges
By: Olugbenga Adara
Consultant, Projektlink Konsult Ltd,
Ibadan, Nigeria.

2. About Nigeria
● Population of about 150 Million People
● Located in West Africa
● The most populous black nation in the world
● Most functional libraries are academic libraries
● Well over 150 tertiary institutions ( > 100
Universities, > 45 Polytechnic)

3. Where we are in Africa

4. Koha History in Nigeria
● About 13 known Koha Installations
●
1st
install at Obafemi Awolowo University in
2001/2002 (Not in use again)
● Koha Version 1.0
●
2nd
install at National Teachers Institute in
Kaduna (Not installed by Projektlink)
● Longest running fully active install is Bowen
University (Oct. 2007, v 2.9 now 3.02)

5. Current users of Koha in Nigeria (by
Projektlink)
● Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State.
● Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan
● National Mathematical Centre, Sheda, Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja.
● Government House Library, Ilorin, Kwara State
● Salem University, Lokoja, Kogi State
● Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti. Ekiti State
● Osun State University, Osogbo, Osun State

6. Current users of Koha in Nigeria (by
Projektlink) contd.
● Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State
● Osun State Polytechnic, Iree
● Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary,
Ogbomoso
● Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji
● Sickle Cell Foundation, Lagos.
● Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State

7. Prospects of Koha in Nigeria
● An estimate of less than 20% of libraries
running an ILS
● Lack of adequate funding makes open source a
viable choice in Nigerian Libraries
● Koha (as well as other open source like Dspace
etc) is providing opportunities for automation.
● New and young librarians are pushing for as
much automation as possible in libraries

8. Challenges
● Poor infrastructure – especially electricity power
problems prevalent in Nigeria
● Internet Access – Most OPACs are offline as
the Internet Access is unreliable
● Manpower issues – Computer literacy among
professional librarians still low.
● Lack of commitment by Heads of Libraries
● Organisation IT Dept rivalry with contractor.

9. Efforts to mitigate challenges
● Kyle's offline circulation for when power is off.
● Looking at generating Card catalogues from the
system (Koha 3.2)
● Workshops to improve knowledge of users.

10. Projektlink's efforts to encourage the
adoption of Koha
● Organised a free workshop to sensitize
Librarians on Koha and its features
● Encouraging libraries to form a Koha Users
Group for self help and support. This was
launched in June 2010.
● We attend as many Nigerian Library
Association events as we can, publicising Koha
● At least, the Koha brand is now known in
Nigeria compared to 3 years ago.

11. Next steps?
● Translation of Koha into major Nigerian
languages, including English – Nigerian
● Encouraging librarians to participate in the
Koha community, thereby possibly getting
relevant features peculiar to our library
environment in koha

12. Conclusion
● Koha is the giant on whose shoulders we hope
Nigerian Libraries will stand to achieve our
Millenium Development Goals
● Thanks to everyone who make the software
possible and special thanks to HLT for starting
this.
● Thanks to Chris, Kristina, Joann, Bob and
everyone who still made it possible to deliver
this paper.
● Kohacon in Nigeria before the Next 10 years!

13. Questions
Thank you