The Federal Government has launched the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), an AI-powered national education database designed to track Nigerian learners natiowide. 

The new cloud-based platform tracks learners from school enrolment to employment while tackling long-standing challenges of fragmented records, examination malpractice, and weak education planning, according to government.

The new cloud-based platform, unveiled during the National Stakeholders’ Workshop held in Abuja on May 14, is also expected to centralise academic records, school infrastructure data, and learner tracking across Nigeria’s basic, secondary, technical, vocational, and tertiary education systems into what government describes as a single national source of truth for the sector.

“As we look at our data, about 80% of development bank financing and development partners’ investments over the last 10 years have gone to two geopolitical zones in the country,” the Minister said.

NEDI: single national source of truth for education sector

According to the Federal Government, the platform integrates records from major education agencies including the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, West African Examinations Council, National Examinations Council, and NELFUND into an AI-enabled digital ecosystem capable of supporting real-time analytics, policy formulation, institutional performance tracking, and evidence-based governance.

Speaking at the launch, Maruf Alausa, Minister of Education, described the initiative as a major shift towards data-driven governance in Nigeria’s education sector.

The Minister said the government embarked on the project after discovering that education data across the country had remained fragmented for years, weakening policy interventions and limiting the impact of development investments.

“NEDI will now be the single source of truth because, two or two-and-a-half years ago, all our educational data was fragmented,” Alausa said.

According to the Education Minister, more than 32 million learners and over 220,000 schools across 21 states have already been captured on the platform.

A major feature of the initiative is the introduction of a National Learner Identity Number linked to the National Identity Number (NIN), which government says will help authorities monitor students throughout their academic journey while reducing identity fraud, examination malpractice, and the proliferation of so-called miracle centres.

The Federal Government says the platform’s Artificial Intelligence capabilities will also help identify patterns behind learner dropouts, improve education planning, and optimise resource allocation across regions.

The launch comes as Nigeria continues to grapple with one of the world’s largest out-of-school children populations. Recent government figures estimate that about 18.3 million children remain outside the formal education system, with more than 60% concentrated in the North-West and North-East regions.

Alausa said analysis of past education investments revealed major inefficiencies in development financing allocation.

According to the Minister, nearly 80% of development financing and donor investments over the last decade were concentrated in two geopolitical zones that continue to record the country’s lowest literacy and numeracy outcomes.

“As we look at our data, about 80% of development bank financing and development partners’ investments over the last 10 years have gone to two geopolitical zones in the country,” the Minister said.

“And those two zones have the lowest literacy and numeracy rates in the country. So, it is like a wasted investment.”

The Federal Government says NEDI forms part of a broader national strategy to modernise Nigeria’s education data architecture and eliminate long-standing inconsistencies in institutional records across the sector.

Officials say the centralised platform is expected to strengthen transparency, improve policy coordination, and support economic planning through more reliable education intelligence.

The project also builds on earlier government efforts to introduce a nationwide Learner Identification Number (LIN), a permanent digital identity assigned to students to enable tracking of academic progression across schools and examination bodies.

In April this year, the Federal Government disclosed that more than 1.9 million candidates participating in the 2026 WAEC and NECO examinations had already been issued learner identification numbers under the first phase of the national rollout.

The latest move underscores growing efforts by government to deploy digital technologies, cloud infrastructure, and Artificial Intelligence to reform public sector administration and improve outcomes in Nigeria’s education system.