Learning from FCDO’s AI experiment: A roadmap for Nigeria’s education ministry
By Precious Ebere-Chionoso Obi
Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept in global education. Across Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa, ministries are experimenting with AI to strengthen policy design, improve service delivery, and reduce administrative burdens.
One of the most ambitious initiatives comes from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in partnership with EdTech Hub, whose on-demand AI support service is quietly redefining how development partners and governments approach AI integration.
Nigeria’s education policymakers should pay close attention not to copy wholesale, but to adapt the principles behind this model to our own national context.
The FCDO/EdTech Hub model in brief
The EdTech Hub on-demand service provides flexible technical assistance and catalytic funding to FCDO education teams and their government partners.
It operates on three core pillars:
1. Evidence and expertise – Rapid access to AI specialists and curated research to inform policy choices.
2. Targeted funding – Small, agile grants to test AI applications inside real education systems.
3. Ecosystem engagement – Project management and stakeholder coordination to ensure government ownership and alignment with national priorities.
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Importantly, the service is demand-driven. Ministries do not receive pre-packaged solutions; instead, they identify their own challenges whether building AI chatbots for teacher support or developing national AI guidelines and EdTech Hub helps them explore, test, and refine options.
Lessons Nigeria can borrow
Early insights from FCDO’s work across ten countries offer practical signals for Nigeria:
- Start with system needs, not gadgets
FCDO’s pilots show that the most promising AI use cases are often behind the scenes:
- Automating data tagging to improve resource discoverability
- Deploying chatbots to strengthen school supervision
- Using predictive analytics for student placement or climate-related disruptions.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Education, often slowed by fragmented data and paper-based processes, could prioritize similar system-level efficiencies before chasing classroom-facing AI tools.
2. Invest in readiness and capacity first
Before launching AI pilots, several FCDO partner countries conduct system readiness assessments mapping infrastructure gaps, workforce capacity, and policy safeguards.
For Nigeria, a readiness audit could clarify the bandwidth, data governance, and teacher-training requirements needed to integrate AI responsibly.
3. Create a learning space for policymakers
FCDO advisors themselves receive structured sessions to build AI fluency understanding what is feasible, spotting risks, and evaluating vendor claims.
Nigeria’s federal and state education leaders would benefit from a similar capacity-building programme, ensuring that government not vendors sets the agenda.
4. Embed AI into existing reforms
EdTech Hub emphasizes that AI must support ongoing priorities of teacher development, school supervision, curriculum delivery rather than stand as a separate project.
For Nigeria, integration with the National Digital Education Strategy or the Teachers’ Professional Development Framework would prevent AI from becoming a short-lived “pilot island.”
A Nigerian adaptation: Practical next steps
To translate these lessons into action, the Ministry of Education could: Commission a National AI Readiness Assessment to map infrastructure, data, and capacity gaps across federal and state levels.
Establish a Nigeria AI-in-Education Working Group, bringing together policymakers, local universities, edtech firms, and development partners to co-design pilot projects.
Launch a “Ministry AI Challenge” modeled on EdTech Hub’s initiative, funding state-led experiments that tackle operational problems such as teacher deployment, exam logistics, or climate-related school closures.
Embed AI Literacy in Teacher Training so educators can critically engage with AI tools rather than merely consume them.
Why this matters
Nigeria faces a dual challenge: a massive learning crisis and increasing pressure to digitize service delivery.
AI offers opportunities to improve efficiency and personalize learning, but without deliberate policy design it could just as easily widen inequalities or lock ministries into expensive vendor dependencies.
The FCDO/EdTech Hub experience shows that responsible AI integration is less about technology itself and more about governance, capacity, and ecosystem alignment.
By adopting and localizing this model, Nigeria can shift from being a passive consumer of AI products to a strategic architect of AI-enabled education reform.
Bottom Line
The question is not whether AI will enter Nigerian classrooms and ministries it already is. The real question is whether the Ministry of Education will shape AI to strengthen learning outcomes, or allow external actors to define its trajectory.
Learning from global experiments like FCDO’s on-demand service gives Nigeria a head start. The next move is ours.
- Precious Ebere-Chinonso Obi is CEO of Do Take Action and independent consultant on edtech, climate change, public policy, and women’s procurement empowerment.
