Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has called on African nations to embrace disruptive technologies to transform education and promote inclusive learning across the continent.
At the MoodleMoot Africa Conference 2025 organised by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in Abuja yesterday, Alausa said Africa must take charge of its digital destiny and use technology as a tool for empowerment and equity.
The conference was organised under the theme, “Leveraging the Power of Disruptive Technologies for Africa’s Educational Transformation.”
The minister described it as timely and significant, stressing that technology is redefining how the world learns and teaches.
“We are gathered here to explore how open-source solutions such as Moodle have transformed learning globally, offering cost-effectiveness, flexibility, local customisation, hosting scalability and ownership to our African educational institutions.
“We stand at a crucial juncture in the world, a time when technology is transforming how we teach, learn and engage with an ever-expanding, yet borderless global community.
“For Africa, I hope this conference will help us build a vibrant community of developers and users that will enable us not just to catch up with the rest of the world, but to achieve digital sovereignty over our learning systems and data,” the minister said.
In his welcome address, NOUN Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olufemi Peters, said the conference was a movement uniting academics, developers, administrators and technologists to build an inclusive, technology-driven educational future.
“This year’s theme is particularly apt because we live in an era where artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things and big data are transforming every facet of our lives. Education cannot afford to lag. It must evolve, not as a passive consumer of technology, but as a creative force that shapes innovation for human development,” Peters said.
He described Moodle as a bridge that connects learners across geographical divides. “Through Moodle, we have seen technology not as a luxury, but as a bridge that connects rural learners to global classrooms, empowers teachers to become digital architects, and allows learning to flourish beyond the walls of any campus,” he said.
The Deputy High Commissioner of South Africa to Nigeria, Ms Lindi Mminele, commended the role of the MoodleMoods Africa Conference in bridging educational gaps through scalable and localised digital solutions.