The standard of education in Nigeria has been declining, the level of unemployment continues to rise and the nation's economic development is stagnant. Its educational institutions appear to engage more in unproductive paperwork and teaching than in entrepreneurship education that would help to equip young graduates to become self-employed and employers. In 2011 some 24% of Nigerians were jobless, with unemployment rates of over 17% in urban areas and nearly 26% in rural areas. A productive education system is a vital component of a developed economy, but in Nigeria the education sector has long suffered from neglect. Corruption, poor continuity in government and a dearth of qualified personnel in the teaching profession are some of the principal impediments. The authors recommend a review of the country's educational policies so that these policies can be made responsive to social and economic needs.

This paper examined the impacts of non-availability and unreliability of institutional data and official statistics on the practice of Monitoring and Evaluation in Nigeria. It also examined the implications of these impacts on the assessment of public policies and national development. Findings showed that where institutional data on social indicators exist, they are either not reliable because data on indicators from different public institutions do not correspond with each other, or they are completely at variance with existing realities. This poses great challenges to effective Monitoring and Evaluation in Nigeria. Consequently, the paper amongst other things, recommended strict enforcement of mandatory digitization and data backup devices for all MDAs in the country by outsourcing data management to private corporations, and the strengthening of institutional and resource capacities of government agencies and institutions that are saddled with the responsibility of maintaining institutional data on social indicators.