NEDI to Serve as Nigeria’s Single Source of Truth for Education Data — Alausa

By Jane Salihu

The Federal Government has said the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) will revolutionise education planning by providing a unified national database to guide budgeting, school infrastructure development, teacher deployment and student performance monitoring across the country.

Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the National Stakeholders’ Workshop on NEDI, describing the initiative as a critical step toward evidence-based governance and improved learning outcomes.

Alausa said the platform would serve as Nigeria’s “single source of truth” for education data, ending years of fragmented records and enabling policymakers to make informed decisions based on accurate and harmonised information.

“The newly developed education data infrastructure will allow governments at all levels to make evidence-based decisions on budgeting, school infrastructure, teacher deployment and student performance,” he said.

The minister noted that the initiative would help ensure that education interventions are aligned with measurable outcomes and that resources are channelled to areas of greatest need.

He said the system was developed in response to lessons from past interventions, which showed that significant investments did not always translate into improved literacy and numeracy outcomes because decisions were not consistently guided by reliable data.

According to him, NEDI will allow government to assess the impact of every intervention and make timely adjustments where expected outcomes are not being achieved.

“Today, we are doing things based on data,” Alausa said. “And if we are not getting those outcomes, what do we need to do? How do we return to the drawing board?”

The minister said the platform has already captured more than 32 million learners and currently covers over 220,000 schools across 21 states, with plans to scale up nationwide.

A central feature of the initiative is the National Learner Identification Number, linked to the National Identification Number, which will assign each student a unique identifier throughout their academic journey from basic to tertiary education.

“With this platform, we can know the number of students, teachers’ qualifications, available classrooms, computers and even water facilities in any school from one dashboard,” he said.

Earlier, NEDI Coordinator, Dr. Abubakar Isah, said the platform was designed to improve educational outcomes, optimise resource allocation and strengthen institutional accountability nationwide.

He explained that prior to the development of NEDI, education data existed in disconnected systems with weak interoperability, inconsistent reporting structures and limited visibility into enrolment, progression and completion trends.

Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, described NEDI as a strategic tool for strengthening child protection, girls’ education and social inclusion.

She said access to reliable and harmonised education data would enable government institutions to identify underserved communities, monitor school attendance and design more targeted interventions for girls and vulnerable children.

According to her, the initiative aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda by supporting human capital development and ensuring that no child is left behind.

Suleiman-Ibrahim added that NEDI should be viewed as a collaborative platform for building an inclusive, responsive and people-centred education system capable of promoting peace, productivity and sustainable national development.

The stakeholders’ workshop brought together education agencies, development partners, state governments and media representatives to review the progress of the initiative and provide feedback ahead of its full implementation nationwid