Education Minister Tunji Alausa has warned that two geopolitical zones that have absorbed approximately 80 percent of development partner investments in Nigeria’s education sector over the past decade continue to record the country’s worst literacy and numeracy rates, raising serious questions about the effectiveness of donor-funded interventions and demanding a fundamental rethink of how educational resources are targeted and tracked.
Alausa, speaking at a stakeholders’ workshop on the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure initiative in Abuja, said the disturbing trend underscored the urgent need for accurate, harmonized, and technology-driven education data capable of guiding more evidence-based government policies and resource allocation decisions. Although he did not identify the zones by name, data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that the North-West and North-East currently rank lowest in national literacy rates.
He said the NEDI initiative was conceived to overhaul education data management by strengthening collection, analysis, storage, and dissemination of educational statistics across all levels of the sector, providing policymakers with credible information to monitor progress, identify gaps, and ensure fairer distribution of investments to areas with the greatest educational needs.
Minister of Women Affairs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, also speaking at the workshop, described NEDI as a strategic intervention that would significantly boost efforts in child protection, girls’ education, social inclusion, and support for vulnerable groups, and commended the ministry for demonstrating commitment to building a modern evidence-based education system.
