Blockchain storage partnership to protect data of half a million students in Africa

OmniIndex announces today a 'world-first' deal with Future-X Education and Cross River State in Nigeria to secure the data of every student in the state with blockchain storage and fully encrypted analytics. The new partnership will see the data of an estimated 500,000 individuals become 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.

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. Nigeria’s National Blockchain Policy, released in May 2023, outlines the key benefits of such an approach, including the improved transparency and accountability, increased efficiency, enhanced security and financial inclusion that blockchain technology can provide. 

The Nigerian tech sector is one of the fastest growing in Africa and this is backed by the government’s commitment to investment in new technologies. In 2022, the technology start-up ecosystem is said to have attracted around $1 billion to Nigeria. This latest blockchain storage partnership will ensure security, integrity, and privacy of students' data using blockchain technology, fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The deal will maintain the Nigerian government’s commitment to meet global trends, UNESCO’s requirements for Future Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) and its Education 2030 vision.

OmniIndex’s web3 data platform partnership with Future-X enables the Federal Ministry of Education to upgrade Nigeria’s educational data management infrastructure. With the support of OmniIndex, Future-X’s proven EMIS now offers complete accountability with blockchain’s real-time recording of all access and transactions. It also means it 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.

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. 

Caroline Adikpo-Edet, Director Planning, Research and Statistics Department Cross-River State Ministry of Education, said: “Getting accurate data of schools, staffs and learners in Cross River State Ministry of Education has been a challenge but with Future-X, we have been able to solve these challenges and many others.”

Future-X Education CEO Dr Patrick Adeneye, said: "Thanks to Omnilndex, Future-X Education is adding industry-leading security and privacy to our cloud-based education management information system. 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." 

OmniIndex CEO Simon Bain said: “It is fantastic to be working with the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria on this project. 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 today. As the world’s only provider of commercial fully homomorphic encryption within a blockchain data storage platform, OmniIndex is proud to be at the forefront of this new Web3 era. 

“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.”