The Federal Government says it is overhauling Nigeria’s education planning system with a new data-driven platform designed to align learning outcomes with labour market needs and reduce graduate unemployment.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, disclosed this on Thursday at a stakeholders’ workshop on the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) in Abuja. He said years of fragmented data had weakened education planning and investment decisions.
Alausa said the new system would help government match education policies with real labour demand across states and local government areas.
“We don’t just want to train students; we want to guide them based on labour gap needs across the country,” he said. “We are working with the National Bureau of Statistics to understand what jobs are needed in each area so students can make informed career choices.”
He said the platform would support labour-gap analysis, curriculum alignment, and targeted skills development, including entrepreneurship training embedded in tertiary education.
According to him, the system would help students choose courses based on real economic demand rather than assumption-driven career paths.
The minister said the government is integrating education data from agencies including the Universal Basic Education Commission, JAMB, WAEC, NECO, and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund into a single national system.
He added that the platform, which will be cloud-based and enhanced with artificial intelligence, will serve as a “single source of truth” for the sector.
“We now have a unified system that allows us to see enrolment, facilities, and teacher distribution across the country in real time,” Alausa said.
He said more than 32 million students and over 220,000 schools across 21 states have already been captured in the database.
Presenting an overview of the project, NEDI Coordinator Dr. Abubakar Isah said the system was designed to end years of inconsistent and fragmented education reporting.
“For the first time, Nigeria has a single source of truth for education data that can be used for planning and accountability,” he said.
Development partners, including Ernst & Young, also demonstrated how integrated data from examination bodies and education agencies can be used to track student progression and institutional performance.
Separately, the Chief of Education at UNICEF Nigeria, Vanessa Lee, said reliable data remains essential for improving planning and learning outcomes, urging stronger collaboration across the sector.
The government says the platform will guide budgeting, infrastructure development, teacher deployment, and policy decisions as part of wider education reforms.
