Cross River State partners with OmniIndex to protect students’ data

 

OmniIndex announced the partnerships in a statement on Thursday.

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Cross River State in Nigeria has partnered with OmniIndex, a web3 data platform, to secure the data of students in the state.

The company has also partnered with Future-X Education, a Nigerian-based education management technology company, to help the Federal Ministry of Education upgrade Nigeria’s educational data management infrastructure.

OmniIndex announced the partnerships in a statement on Thursday.

Nigeria and data challenge

Nigeria has a data problem, with the accuracy of existing data a subject of controversy.

The data on Nigeria’s out-of-school children remains a subject of controversy in the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.


Even the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), both agencies of the United Nations, provided conflicting figures. While UNICEF said the figure was at 18.5 million, UNESCO said it has risen to 20 million. The government, meanwhile, insists the figure remains 6.95 million.

Partnership

OmniIndex said the partnership with Cross River State, which it described as the first of its kind, would help to secure the data of every student in the state with “blockchain storage and fully encrypted analytics.”

It said the data of an estimated 500,000 persons will be fully protected with encryption, redacted anonymisation and web3 security.

“The use of blockchain and encryption technologies will enable accurate real-time insights to improve educational outcomes without ever exposing the individual personal details of those involved,” it said.



“The agreement with Cross River State is the first deal of its kind in the world and is a marker of Nigeria’s ambition to create a blockchain-powered economy supporting secure transactions, data sharing, and value exchange between people, businesses, and government.”


The organisation also said its web3 data platform partnership with Future-X will enable the Federal Ministry of Education to upgrade Nigeria’s educational data management infrastructure.

It said this partnership means Future-X now has full security with data, never exposed to attack, encrypted at all times, immutable, and continually monitored for unauthorised access through its built-in narrow AI engine.

“With the support of OmniIndex, Future-X’s proven Education Management Information System (EMIS) now offers complete accountability with blockchain’s real-time recording of all access and transactions,” the statement stated.

“OmniIndex’s blockchain storage and encrypted analytics platform uses machine learning (ML) and large language model (LLM) to provide insights on the fully encrypted data without revealing sensitive information or putting it at risk.”

The statement quoted the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Future-X Education, Patrick Adeneye, as saying the partnership with Omnilndex, has helped his company to add industry-leading security and privacy to its cloud-based education management information system (EMIS).

Mr Adeneye was quoted to have said: “We will now be able to expand to more schools and help even more teachers and students in Africa securely access the data they need without any risk of third-party access or exposure.”

Meanwhile, the OmniIndex CEO, Simon Bain, said it is time for everyone to stop talking about the future potential of blockchain technologies, and to actually use blockchain and other related web3 innovations to start making a real difference.

“It is fantastic to be working with the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria on this project,” he said.

“There is a huge appetite for this to be the first of many such deals across Nigeria and we are in active discussion with other states to provide the same data protection and privacy for educational data while providing much-needed insights.”

About Future-X

Future-X Education is a Lagos-based education management technology company.

It provides a cloud-based Education Management Information System (EMIS) that integrates School Management System (SMS), Learning Management System (LMS), Computer Based Testing (CBT), Analytics and Artificial Intelligence System (AAIS), together on a single platform that can be used by schools.

About Omnilndex

Omnilndex is a tech company based in California, United States, and provides data encryption technology that allows data to be fully encrypted while stored, shared, and analysed.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.