In Nigeria, 2025 was a big year for financial technology adoption, with total value of electronic payments climbing above 24%.
But 2026 is shaping up to be the year the country confronts even bigger challenges such as access to education.
The challenges in Nigeria’s education sector are both structural and systemic, while policymakers debate reforms, technology is becoming a more practical tool to expand access, reduce expenses, and improve quality at scale.
To unpack what measurable tech-driven reform could look like, Ethan Ebenezer spoke with Lydia Nwobodo, product manager at Miva Open University, an open and distance learning institution under the uLesson Group.
Nwobodo has been at the centre of building large-scale digital assessment systems at the University.
In December 2025, she helped oversee an examination cycle that supported more than 17,000 students sitting over 400 examinations nationwide, an operation conducted entirely through digital infrastructure.
During the conversation, she broke down the structural gaps holding Nigeria’s education system back, why Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is the most transformative reform on the table, and the key metrics she believes must define whether tech-driven education reforms are truly working.
In her response, she addressed structural gaps in the system, the overlooked potentials of Open and Distance Learning, education inclusion beyond major urban centres, the role of public-private partnerships, and the specific metrics she believes must define whether the tech-driven education reforms in Nigeria are truly working.
TE: From your perspective, what are the biggest structural gaps in Nigeria’s education system today, and how can technology meaningfully address them?
Lydia Nwobodo (LN): Nigeria’s education crisis runs deeper than most people acknowledge. It’s not just about the access, it’s about the quality at scale, the broken transition pathways, and a widening gap between credentials and actual skills.
First, there’s the teacher shortage, which is real and severe. In many public schools, one qualified teacher is managing a minimum of 60 or more students.
Technology can’t replace that teacher, but it can extend them through structured digital curricula, AI-assisted lesson delivery, and tools that reduce how much individual teacher quality determines student outcomes.
Then there’s the transition problem. Millions of Nigerians complete secondary school but can’t access or afford university. Not because they’re unqualified, but because the system wasn’t built for them.
Open and distance learning directly addresses this by decoupling education from physical presence and rigid schedules. At Miva, we have students who are holding down full/part time jobs, running businesses, learning a vocation and still managing their school work well.
And finally, there’s the assessment infrastructure gap which is the one I know more intimately. Most Nigerian institutions still rely on paper-based exams, manual marking, and result processing that takes months.
That is just inefficient! It’s a major bottleneck that slows down the entire learning cycle. When students don’t get timely feedback, they can’t course-correct. When results take months to prepare, school operations slow down.
TE: In your view, which tech-related education reform or emerging trend holds the most potential to revolutionise access and quality in Nigeria’s education sector by 2026?
LN: Open and Distance Learning, full stop.
ODL removes the two biggest barriers simultaneously: geography and cost. A student in Kano, Benue, or Ondo can access the same curriculum as someone in Lagos without relocating, without paying for accommodation, and without putting their life on hold. That’s not a small thing. That’s transformative.
At Miva, we’re not theorising about this. We’re championing this change. In December 2025, we supported over 17,000 students sitting more than 400 exams, undergraduate and postgraduate, entirely through our digital exam portal.
Students took exams from our CBT centres across Nigeria and remotely from their own locations, with video and audio proctoring to maintain exam integrity. We achieved a 90% success rate across all exam sessions. That’s not a pilot programme. That’s infrastructure working at scale.
The regulatory groundwork is also being laid. Nigeria’s NUC has started recognising ODL institutions. The window to build at scale is right now, and the institutions that move decisively in this window will define what Nigerian higher education looks like for the next generation.
TE: Connectivity, affordability of devices, and digital literacy remain major barriers. What practical strategies can edtech platforms adopt to ensure inclusion beyond major cities?
LN: This is where I think a lot of edtech platforms get it wrong, they build for Lagos and then wonder why adoption stalls everywhere else.
Inclusion beyond major cities is a product problem before it’s a policy problem. And it has to be designed from the start, not retrofitted.
A few things that actually matter:
Offline-first design:
Content must work without a reliable internet. Downloadable modules, SMS-based check-ins, even USSD for assessments. This isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a core product requirement for anyone serious about reaching students outside urban centres.
Low-bandwidth optimization:
Audio-led content costs a fraction of the data that video does. A two-minute audio lesson is accessible to someone on a 2G network while a video isn’t. We need to build for the constraint, not the ideal.
Device-agnostic delivery:
Most learners outside Lagos are on entry-level Android phones, not laptops. If your platform isn’t built for that reality first, you’re not actually building for Nigeria.
Last-mile human support:
Pure digital approach doesn’t work without human touchpoints in local communities and that’s a fact. People who help the learners navigate the platform, troubleshoot issues, and stay accountable are critical. We see this in our CBT centre model. The technology enables the exam, and the centre staff make it possible for students who’ve never sat a digital exam before to adjust and adapt.
Zero-rated data partnerships:
Working with telcos to zero-rate educational content is underutilised in Nigeria. It’s been done in other markets (check out SA, Kenya, Ghana). It works.
Local language interfaces:
Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, these aren’t optional extras. They’re the difference between adoption and abandonment in non-Lagos markets.
TE: How can partnerships between edtech companies, government institutions, and private sector stakeholders accelerate large-scale impact in Nigeria and across Africa?
LN: The honest answer is that each stakeholder has something the others lack and that’s actually the opportunity.
The government has regulatory legitimacy, public infrastructure, and the ability to mandate adoption at scale. But it lacks execution speed and product thinking.
Edtech companies have product, distribution, and data but struggle to reach the bottom of the pyramid profitably on their own, and often lack community-level trust. The private sector; banks, telcos, employers, have funding and distribution networks, but need a clear return on investment to commit.
The partnerships that actually work share three things: clear ownership (one party leads, others support), genuinely aligned incentives rather than MoUs that gather dust, and data-sharing agreements that let everyone measure real impact.
A model I think is worth scaling is: an edtech platform that partners with state governments to deliver accredited skills programmes through public school infrastructure.
The government provides the venues and credibility, edtech provides the curriculum and technology, and the private sector sponsors access for underserved learners in exchange for first-look hiring rights. Everyone wins, and the incentives are real.
Across Africa, the same logic applies. The continent’s education challenges are too large for any single actor. But the partnerships that will move the needle are the ones built around shared data, shared accountability, and shared upside, not just shared press releases.
TE: Looking ahead to the next five years, what measurable outcomes should we expect if technology is effectively deployed to bridge Nigeria’s education gap?
LN: Vague aspirations don’t move anything. Here’s what I’d actually want to see tracked:
Tertiary enrollment rate:
Nigeria sits at roughly 11% today. With effective ODL and tech deployment, a realistic target is 20–22% by 2031. If we’re not moving that number, the access story isn’t real.
Result turnaround time:
Traditional universities take months to release exam results. A well-run digital assessment system can do it in days. That’s a concrete, measurable improvement in the student experience and it has downstream effects on employment timelines and student confidence.
Cost per learner:
If technology is working, the cost to educate one learner to a recognised credential should drop significantly. A 40–50% reduction in cost per learner compared to the traditional university model is achievable and should be a stated target.
Geographic reach:
What percentage of enrolled learners are from non-Lagos, non-Abuja states? If that number isn’t growing year on year, the inclusion story is just marketing.
Employment outcomes:
The percentage of graduates placed in formal employment within 12 months of completing a tech-enabled programme. This is the metric employers and government actually care about, and it’s the one that builds long-term trust in digital credentials.
Gender parity in STEM:
Female enrollment in technology and STEM programmes needs to be tracked specifically not buried in aggregate numbers. If we’re not intentional about this, the gap widens even as overall access improves.
Five years is enough time to move all of these meaningfully. But only if institutions, governments, and the private sector are willing to be held accountable to numbers, not narratives.
If Nigeria’s education system is to undergo significant positive change, the metrics will reflect the growth.
Enrolment in tertiary institutions must move from roughly 11% to something closer to 20% within five years. The cost per learner must reduce by almost half. Enrollment in schools must expand beyond highly urbanized areas. Employment outcomes must become more transparent and gender gaps in STEM must narrow, not widen.
These are not abstract ambitions. They are measurable indicators of whether reform is real or rhetorical.
As Nwobodo makes clear, technology alone is not the reform. Infrastructure, regulatory backing, inclusive design, and cross-sector partnerships are the reform. Technology is just the delivery mechanism.
The coming five years will test whether Nigeria’s institutions are prepared to build to scale, accountability, and inclusion, or whether digital transformation will remain another intentional promise that still remains unmet.
Lydia Nwobodo’s profile;
Lydia Nwobodo is a Product Manager with over five years of experience building digital products across edtech, logistics, and e-commerce in Nigeria. She currently leads product development for the Exam Portal at Miva Open University, an open and distance learning institution under uLesson Group, where she is responsible for creating seamless exam experiences for students and faculty across Nigeria and beyond.
In her role, Lydia has overseen the delivery of large-scale proctored exam seasons, most recently supporting over 17,000 students across 400+ exams in December 2025, for remote postgraduate and undergraduate learners nationwide.
Before Miva, she held product roles at Heroshe and Sendbox, where she built logistics operations tools, B2B inventory systems, and e-commerce marketplaces, cutting operational costs by 36% and reducing product development time by 45%.
Lydia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and is certified in Product Management and Digital Marketing. She is passionate about building technology that works for real people especially in contexts where the infrastructure is imperfect and the stakes are high.
