The Federal Government has raised concerns over the poor educational outcomes in parts of Nigeria despite massive investments by development partners in the sector over the past decade.
Speaking on Thursday at a stakeholders’ workshop on the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) in Abuja, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa said nearly 80 per cent of donor and development bank funding for education had been concentrated in two geopolitical zones that still record the country’s lowest literacy and numeracy rates.
Although the minister did not directly identify the regions, recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that the North-West and North-East have the weakest literacy levels nationwide.
Alausa described the situation as troubling, saying it raises questions about the effectiveness, coordination, and sustainability of donor-supported education interventions in the affected areas.
“As we look at our data, the total amount of development bank financing investment and development partners’ investment, about 80 per cent of those investments in the last 10 years, has gone to two geopolitical zones in the country. And those two zones have the lowest percentage of numeracy and literacy rates in the country,” he said.
The minister explained that the NEDI initiative was created to improve education data management through a unified technology-driven system for collecting, analysing, storing, and sharing education statistics across the country.
According to him, the platform will help policymakers monitor progress, identify gaps in service delivery, and ensure fairer distribution of educational resources and interventions.
Alausa added that stronger and integrated data systems would enable authorities to identify underserved communities, monitor school performance, and deploy resources more effectively to areas with the greatest educational challenges.
Also speaking at the workshop, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim described NEDI as a strategic initiative aimed at strengthening planning, coordination, and inclusive education delivery through reliable data systems.
She noted that improved education data would support efforts in child protection, girls’ education, family development, and social inclusion, especially for vulnerable children.
Earlier, NEDI Coordinator Abubakar Isah said the initiative seeks to eliminate inconsistencies in education data reporting and provide reliable statistics for policy formulation and national planning.