The Federal Government has launched a major overhaul of Nigeria’s education data system with the unveiling of the National Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), a technology-driven platform aimed at transforming education planning, tracking millions of learners, and tackling the country’s worsening out-of-school children crisis.
The initiative, unveiled during the National Stakeholders’ Workshop on NEDI in Abuja, forms part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in the education sector.
Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, described the project as a “landmark reform” that would usher Nigeria into a new era of data-driven governance in education.
According to the minister, NEDI is designed to provide Nigeria with a “unified and credible national education data system” capable of strengthening policy formulation, budgeting, infrastructure planning, transparency, accountability, and service delivery across all levels of education.
“This platform will serve as the nation’s central education data repository,” Alausa declared.
He explained that the system would integrate data from basic, secondary, technical, vocational, and tertiary institutions, while also synchronising records from key education agencies including the Universal Basic Education Commission, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the West African Examinations Council, the National Examinations Council, and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
In a bold move aimed at ending fragmented records and weak planning in the sector, the Federal Government said NEDI would power learner tracking through the National Learner Identity Number and provide real-time insights for labour-gap analysis, curriculum alignment, teacher deployment, and resource allocation.
The government further disclosed that the platform would drive targeted interventions for out-of-school children and educational inequality, two of the most pressing challenges confronting the nation’s education system.
Officials revealed that more than 32 million learners and over 220,000 schools across 21 states have already been captured on the platform, signaling what authorities described as “one of the most ambitious education data reforms in Nigeria’s history.”
The Federal Government reaffirmed its commitment to leveraging technology, innovation, and credible national data systems to build what it called a “transparent, inclusive, and globally competitive education sector.”
Stakeholders across the education sector were urged to support the implementation of NEDI, which the government described as the “single source of truth” for education planning, accountability, and improved service delivery nationwide.
