Northeast Nigeria — Pilot: Adamawa State
Every student sitting the exam deserves to have touched a keyboard first.
For over a decade, insurgency has cut large parts of Northeast Nigeria off from basic infrastructure — including the computers a generation of students now needs just to sit its own exams. TADSEF is proving the fix works in Adamawa State, the region's most educated ground, before carrying it to the rest of the Northeast and beyond.
Who we are
Bridging gaps, empowering communities, transforming lives.
Taimako Digital Skills and Empowerment Foundation (TADSEF) is a women-led NGO working toward a digitally-included Northeast Nigeria — a region where more than a decade of insurgency has pushed entire communities out of the classroom and off the grid. We're proving our model in Adamawa State, the Northeast's most educated state, before replicating what works across the region and, in time, the country.
Our premise is simple: students in public schools are not failing computer-based exams because they lack ability. They're failing because many have never sat in front of a computer at all. And the schools we currently reach sit inside the state capital — the most resourced ground the region has to offer. If the gap looks like this here, it is wider still in the rural, harder-to-reach communities we haven't gotten to yet. That is exactly why Project D.R.I.V.E. exists.
Governance
Leadership
Pana Michael
Executive Director
Pana leads TADSEF's day-to-day operations, working across the foundation's digital literacy, education access, and gender inclusion programs in Adamawa State.
The evidence base
We measured the gap before we claimed to close it.
Every program TADSEF runs is built on primary data we collected ourselves, inside the classrooms we work in — not assumptions about what public school students need.
Every school below sits inside Adamawa's state capital — the best-resourced ground the Northeast has. This data is the floor of the problem, not the ceiling. We haven't yet measured the rural, insurgency-affected communities we know are worse off.
75 students, 7 schools, Yola North
JAMB-sponsored secondary school students trained ahead of their CBT exams.
6,182 students, 969 teachers, 17 schools
A readiness survey spanning Yola North, Yola South, and Girei LGAs.
What we run
Seven programs. One throughline: put a keyboard in front of every student before exam day does.
Digital Skills Training
Hands-on training in basic computer operation — from turning a machine on to navigating a testing interface with confidence.
ActiveCBT & JAMB Preparation
Structured practice on computer-based testing platforms so exam day is the first time nothing feels unfamiliar.
ActiveICT Lab Management
Supporting public schools with ICT infrastructure, staffing gaps, and the equipment theft and neglect that idle most school labs.
ActiveSchool Digitalization
Moving schools from paper-based record keeping to centralized, digital management systems.
ActiveConnecting the Unconnected
Bringing internet connectivity to 5 target public schools, delivered with partners Rove Monitoring System and Lyeomart.
ActiveGirls Computer Literacy Project
50 girls trained in foundational computer literacy — self-funded, 2024.
Completed 2024JAMB CBT Support Program
70 youth prepared for computer-based JAMB exams, delivered with Cosmotech Learning Center — 2024.
Completed 2024On the ground
What training day actually looks like — in the region's best-resourced classrooms.
Real sessions from our public school partners across Yola North, Yola South, and Girei — all within Adamawa's state capital.
Facilitator-led CBT orientation, public secondary school
Girls' computer literacy session
ICT lab support in action
Digital skills classroom, Yola North
International Women's Day panel, hosted by TADSEF
Digital skills training session
Flagship initiative — Adamawa pilot
Project D.R.I.V.E.
Digital Readiness & Inclusion for Virtual Education. Built and piloted in Adamawa State, and designed from day one to travel — a replicable model for closing the CBT readiness gap across the Northeast, and eventually, the wider country.
Diagnose
Survey schools to establish true baseline digital readiness — no assumptions, primary data only.
Train
Deliver structured, hands-on computer and CBT-platform training directly in the classroom.
Equip
Provide access to computers and connectivity so practice doesn't stop when we leave the room.
Track
Follow exam outcomes and re-survey to prove the gap is closing, not just that a training happened.
What we're building toward
Our Adamawa pilot targets
Hit these, and the case for replicating D.R.I.V.E. across the Northeast writes itself.
Working alongside us
Partners & collaborators
100% of the schools we surveyed asked to work with us. Help us say yes to the ones insurgency left behind.
Every donation gets a student in front of a keyboard before exam day — and helps us prove a model we can carry to every Northeast state still waiting for it.