The initiative, valued at N180 billion annually, will initially cover five million students in senior secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has introduced zero-rated access to selected educational platforms, allowing eligible Nigerian students to access learning content without paying for data, starting 1 October 2026.
Aminu Maida, Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, and Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, jointly unveiled the initiative at its official launch in Abuja on Thursday.
Maida said eligible students will receive up to 100 megabytes of data daily to access approved educational platforms, amounting to about 3GB monthly.
Why the programme was designed with a data cap
According to Maida, sustainability was central to the initiative’s design, to ensure the cost of providing free access would not place an excessive burden on telecommunications operators.
“The first time it was raised when we had that discussion, that was the first thing that we had to sit down and figure out. How can this be done in such a way that we are not putting too much burden on the networks? Sustainability was actually very key to the design of this initiative, and that is why we have a cap of 100 megabytes a day,” he said.
Maida said telecommunications operators, working through the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), agreed to support the programme as part of the industry’s contribution to digital inclusion and human capital development, describing it as the sector “paying it forward.”
He noted operators have committed to upgrading about 12,000 network sites in 2026, with roughly 70 per cent of that target already completed, upgrades he said remain necessary regardless of the education initiative given growing overall demand for telecom services.
Scale and value of the initiative
Alausa said the programme will initially provide free daily data to about 5 million eligible students in public senior secondary schools and tertiary institutions, before expanding to other categories of learners.
He put the value of the daily allocation at roughly N100 per student, or about N3,000 monthly, totalling an estimated N180 billion annually across all beneficiaries.
“The 100MB daily allocation for five million students amounts to about 15 billion megabytes of data monthly and represents an estimated N180 billion in data value annually,” he said.
Alausa described the initiative as a major education intervention, particularly for students in underserved communities and families unable to afford regular internet data.
“A digital platform can be difficult for a child who cannot afford the data required to access excellent online lessons. The benefits of technology cannot be truly transformative if access remains determined by household income and geography,” he said, adding that content made available to students must be credible, safe and aligned with Nigeria’s educational curriculum.
He also disclosed that the government is separately working on measures to regulate internet access for children below the age of 16, with further details to be announced later.
How platforms will be selected and what comes next
NCC Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management Rimini Makama said millions of students currently cannot use digital learning platforms because of data costs.
“The Zero-Rated Access Initiative exists to erase that line. Its principle is simple: no learner should be shut out of educational content because of where they live or what their family earns,” she said.
NCC Director of Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis Ayuba Shuaibu said the Federal Ministry of Education and the commission would jointly determine which educational platforms are whitelisted under the scheme.
Maida said the next phase of the broader effort would focus on extending connectivity to unserved and underserved communities, since the daily data allocation offers limited benefit to students without reliable network coverage in the first place.
“So I think for me, the next thing is how can we aggressively take service to the unserved and underserved,” he said.
