State-level malaria incidence analysis for Nigeria (2010–2023) using CRISP-DM. Combines Malaria Atlas Project and NASA POWER climate data, a validated Random Forest model with SHAP explainability, and an interactive Power BI dashboard. Built for the 3MTT data analytics programme.
# Malaria Incidence Trends in Nigeria
### A CRISP-DM Data Analysis, Machine Learning & Power BI Dashboard Project
**Author:** Raji Toluwanimi Samuel
**Track:** AnalystLab Africa Data Analytics and Machine Learning Internship Programme
**Methodology:** CRISP-DM (Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining)
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## 1. Business Understanding
**Question:** What are the trends in malaria incidence across Nigerian states from 2010–2023, and how much can climate data and historical incidence explain about a state's future burden?
**Why it matters:** Nigeria carries one of the world's highest malaria burdens. Resource allocation decisions where to prioritize nets, chemoprevention campaigns, and surveillance benefit from understanding both *where* burden is concentrated and *how predictable* it is from year to year. This project builds a state-level analytical pipeline to support that kind of prioritization, and is transparent about what the data can and can't explain.
**Intended audience:** A public-health decision-maker (e.g. NMEP-style program officer) who needs a clear, honest picture of state-level trends — not a black-box prediction.
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## 2. Data Understanding
| Source | What it provides | Level | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malaria Atlas Project | Malaria incidence per 1,000 population | State (admin1) | Nigeria, 2000–2024 |
| NASA POWER API | Rainfall & temperature | State (via centroid lat/lon) | Nigeria, 2010–2023, monthly |
Both sources are public and required no authentication. The overlapping usable window across both sources is **2010–2023**, which defines the project's analytical scope.
**A data-quality issue found and fixed during this project:** NASA POWER's monthly rainfall parameter (`PRECTOTCORR`) returns an *average daily rate* (mm/day) for each month, not a monthly total. An earlier version of the pipeline summed these 12 raw values directly, producing annual rainfall figures roughly 30x too low (e.g. ~40mm/year for FCT, when the true …