National Assembly to digitise parliamentary records and translate laws into local languages

# What happened Fund announced steps to modernise how parliamentary records are stored and accessed. The Fund said it is developing electronic repositories, a mobile application and a Bills Tracker. It also plans to translate federal laws into Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other Nigerian languages.

# What the project includes

• Electronic repositories: digitised collections of parliamentary records intended to preserve Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports, and Acts passed by the legislature.
• Mobile application: a public-facing app to provide easier access to legislative documents and library resources on phones and tablets.
• Bills Tracker: a tool to follow the progress of bills through the legislative process, designed to make bill status and history more transparent.
• Translation programme: rendering federal laws into major Nigerian languages to help citizens who do not read English understand statutes that affect them.

# Source and context The announcement was made while opening the 2026 National Assembly Library Week, which carried the theme "Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People." The Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund disclosed the initiatives as part of an annual platform meant to promote legislative research, access to information and better use of the National Assembly Library's resources.

# Why this matters

# What is already identified as part of the library's role The library is framed as more than a book collection: it holds the legislature's documentary memory and provides access to authoritative parliamentary records used by lawmakers, legislative aides, researchers and stakeholders.

# Implementation notes mentioned The announcement describes the repository, app and tracker as active development projects of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund. The Library Week event was presented as an annual opportunity to advance legislative research and access to information, implying the projects are being pursued within that institutional agenda.

# What to watch next

• Rollout timeline and public launch dates for the electronic repositories, mobile app and Bills Tracker.
• Scope and format of translated laws: how translations will be vetted for legal accuracy and whether they will carry official status or serve informational purposes.
• Accessibility and search features of the repositories: whether documents will be searchable, downloadable, and whether metadata (dates, sponsors, committee actions) will be provided.
• Stakeholder engagement: whether civil society, legal associations or language experts will be involved in the translation and validation process.

# Bottom line Fund is moving to digitise parliamentary records and create tools to make legislative information more available. Adding translations into Nigeria's major languages targets a persistent access gap for non-English speakers. The next practical questions are about timelines, the legal standing of translated texts, and how usable the new digital tools will be for ordinary citizens, researchers and practitioners.