By our Reporter
The Federal Government has unveiled the Digital National Education Management Information System (DNEMIS), a new national digital platform designed to provide comprehensive data on schools, learners, teachers and education infrastructure across the country to improve planning, transparency and accountability in the education sector.
The platform, which will be officially launched on July 1 alongside the Public DNEMIS Portal and the inauguration of DNEMIS State Implementation Teams, is expected to eliminate fragmented education data and provide a unified national database for evidence-based policymaking and service delivery.
Speaking during a pre-launch media briefing in Abuja, the National Project Coordinator of the Special Programmes Operations and Implementation Unit in the Office of the Minister of Education, Mr. Adebayo Onigbanjo, said the initiative was conceived to address decades of weak, fragmented and inconsistent education data that have hindered effective planning, monitoring and governance.
According to him, DNEMIS serves as the flagship digital platform under the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), a key reform programme of the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) championed by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa.
Onigbanjo explained that the platform would provide timely, reliable and accessible data to support planning, budgeting, policymaking and monitoring while ensuring that every learner, teacher, school and public investment in education is captured within a single national database.
He noted that the initiative reflects the Federal Government’s commitment to ensuring that education reforms are driven by credible evidence rather than assumptions.
“The progress achieved through NEDI and the implementation of DNEMIS demonstrates the Ministry’s commitment to ensuring that reforms are effectively coordinated, implemented and measured. Data is no longer a back-office function; it is now the engine driving education reform in Nigeria,” he said.
Also speaking, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Education on Digital Communications and E-Learning, Miss Mojoyin Adebajo, disclosed that DNEMIS was developed on the globally recognised District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) platform to modernise education administration and strengthen evidence-based decision-making.
She said the system would digitise the Annual School Census, replacing largely manual data collection processes with an integrated digital platform capable of generating accurate, real-time information on schools, learners, teachers and education infrastructure.
According to Adebajo, the innovation would improve resource allocation, strengthen programme monitoring and enhance service delivery across the education sector.
She further highlighted the Public DNEMIS Portal as one of the initiative’s major innovations, saying it would, for the first time, make selected official education data publicly accessible to researchers, policymakers, journalists, development partners, civil society organisations and members of the public.
The Ministry said the portal would promote transparency, improve access to credible information and encourage broader stakeholder participation in shaping Nigeria’s education sector.
The Federal Ministry of Education acknowledged the technical support provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the University of Oslo in the development of the platform.
The ministry expressed confidence that DNEMIS would bridge long-standing gaps in education data management by providing a trusted, integrated national database that supports real-time decision-making, strengthens coordination among federal and state education institutions and advances the Renewed Hope Agenda for quality education.
It also reaffirmed its commitment to working with state governments, development partners and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the initiative and build a more transparent, technology-driven and globally competitive education system.
