By Joseph Erunke, Abuja

The Federal Ministry of Education is set to unveil a landmark digital platform aimed at transforming education planning, governance and service delivery across Nigeria.

The platform, known as the Digital National Education Management Information System, DNEMIS, will be officially launched on Wednesday, July 1, alongside the Public DNEMIS Portal and the inauguration of DNEMIS State Implementation Teams.

Speaking at a pre-launch press briefing in Abuja on Monday, the National Project Coordinator of the Special Programmes Operations and Implementation Unit, SPOIU, Mr. Adebayo Onigbanjo, said the initiative is a flagship reform under the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative, NESRI, being championed by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa.

According to him, DNEMIS marks a decisive shift from the country’s long-standing reliance on fragmented and inconsistent education data systems to a modern, integrated and digitally driven framework capable of supporting evidence-based policymaking.

He said the new platform would enable the government to generate timely, reliable and accessible information for planning, budgeting, monitoring and improved service delivery across all levels of education.

“For many years, education planning suffered from fragmented systems, inconsistent reporting and limited access to reliable data. These challenges weakened accountability and constrained effective planning,” Onigbanjo said.

He explained that the ministry developed the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure, NEDI, as a national framework to standardise and coordinate education data management, with DNEMIS serving as its central digital platform.

According to him, the system will ensure that every learner, teacher, school and public investment in education is properly captured, thereby strengthening transparency, accountability and measurable outcomes.

“The guiding principle of the minister’s reform agenda is simple: you cannot improve what you cannot measure. Data is no longer a back-office function; it is becoming the engine of education reform in Nigeria,” he said.

Onigbanjo added that the unveiling of DNEMIS represents more than the launch of a digital platform, describing it as the beginning of a new era of education governance driven by credible data and measurable results.

Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the Minister on Digital Communications and E-Learning, Miss Mojoyin Adebajo, said DNEMIS was developed on the globally recognised District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) platform to modernise education administration and strengthen access to credible education data nationwide.

She noted that the platform digitises the Annual School Census process, replacing largely manual data collection methods with an integrated digital system capable of providing real-time information for decision-making.

According to her, the innovation will improve planning, budgeting, resource allocation and monitoring while supporting better learning outcomes across the country.

Adebajo described the launch of the Public DNEMIS Portal as one of the most significant aspects of the initiative, saying it would, for the first time, make selected official education data publicly accessible through an interactive online platform.

She said the portal would enable government institutions, researchers, development partners, civil society organisations, journalists, the private sector and members of the public to access and engage with education data, thereby promoting transparency and wider public participation in education policy discussions.

She maintained that digital transformation becomes meaningful when technology makes information more accessible, institutions more responsive and governance more accountable.

The ministry acknowledged the technical support provided by UNICEF and the University of Oslo in the development of the initiative, describing their collaboration as critical to advancing Nigeria’s digital education reforms.

The ministry urged stakeholders to participate in Wednesday’s unveiling, describing DNEMIS as a significant step towards building a more transparent, data-driven and efficient education system capable of improving learning outcomes and strengthening national development.