The Minister of Education, Maruf Alausa, has said the ongoing National Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) initiative will improve education planning, budgeting and coordinated interventions across schools in Nigeria.
Alausa made the disclosure during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on the implementation of the NEDI initiative, a digital platform designed to provide comprehensive data on learners and schools nationwide through a central dashboard.
According to him, the meeting, attended by representatives of ministries, commissioners of education, researchers and scholars, was aimed at exposing stakeholders to the benefits and rationale behind the data infrastructure.
He explained that NEDI was created to capture detailed information about Nigeria’s education sector, including data on students, teachers, infrastructure, curricula and school locations to aid policy formulation and implementation.
“Government will use it for evidence-based planning and policy development, effective budgeting at all levels, and targeted investments in infrastructure and capacity building,” he said.
He added that schools and communities would also use the platform to monitor learners’ outcomes, track investments and improve education delivery through broader stakeholder participation.
The minister disclosed that the initiative would enable government to monitor enrolment, infrastructure, teachers and learning outcomes across more than 240,000 schools nationwide.
Support for Development Partners
Alausa noted that NEDI would support development partners by aligning interventions with verified national priorities while promoting transparency and accountability.
He lamented that Nigeria had operated for years without reliable education data, particularly in planning, research and implementation, stressing that NEDI would address the challenge.
According to him, every learner would be assigned a National Learners Identity Number (NLIN), linked to the National Identity Number (NIN), to curb identity theft, fraud and examination malpractice.
In a presentation, NEDI Coordinator, Abubakar Isah, said the platform would serve as the single source of truth for education data from basic to tertiary levels.
“It is technology-driven, hence it collects, harmonises, analyses and utilises data at scale,” he said.
Isah added that the initiative would track learners’ academic journeys from school to the workplace while strengthening transparency and accountability in education management.
Technology-Driven Education System
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, described NEDI as a reflection of government’s commitment to building a modern, evidence-based education system capable of supporting inclusive learning and improved outcomes for children and youths.
She said reliable educational data would strengthen efforts in child protection, girls’ education, family development and support for vulnerable groups.
“Accurate data enables government to identify gaps, target interventions more effectively, improve coordination across institutions, and ensure that vulnerable children are not left behind,” she said.
Suleiman-Ibrahim stressed that stronger educational data systems had become more urgent due to the growing challenges of out-of-school children, inequality and limited access to quality education in some communities.
Chief Education Officer of UNICEF, Venasa Lee, said the initiative would help Nigeria harness the power of data to provide inclusive and quality education for children.
“With this transformation, more children will learn and more children will grow up achieving their potential,” she said.
Lee, however, urged state governments, local government authorities and schools to commit to uploading and sharing data on the digital platform to ensure effective nationwide coverage.
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