Higher education institutions across Africa are generating unprecedented volumes of assessment data through accreditation processes, programme evaluations, student learning assessments, graduate tracer studies, institutional audits, and quality assurance systems. Despite these advances, a persistent gap remains between the production of assessment information and its systematic utilisation in institutional governance. Assessment activities frequently culminate in reports that satisfy accountability requirements without consistently informing strategic leadership, organisational learning, policy development, or continuous quality improvement. This conceptual disconnect limits universities' capacity to transform assessment into an institutional resource for effective governance. Addressing this gap, the present article develops the Data-to-Decision Governance Framework (DDGF), an integrated conceptual model that explains how assessment data are transformed into assessment evidence, institutional learning, evidence-informed strategic decision-making, and ultimately quality governance outcomes. Drawing upon Systems Theory, Organisational Learning Theory, Evidence-Based Management, and Total Quality Management, the framework demonstrates that sustainable quality governance depends not merely on the availability of institutional information but on organisational processes that convert information into credible evidence and evidence into informed institutional action. The article further contributes to the literature by integrating previously fragmented scholarship on assessment, evidence utilisation, organisational learning, and governance into a coherent explanatory framework. While the DDGF is developed with particular reference to African higher education and illustrated through the Cameroonian context, its underlying governance principles are adaptable to diverse higher education systems. Beyond its theoretical contribution, the framework provides practical guidance for university leaders, quality assurance practitioners, and policymakers seeking to strengthen evidence-informed governance, institutional effectiveness, and continuous quality enhancement. The article concludes by proposing the DDGF as a foundation for future empirical validation and comparative research on evidence-informed governance in higher education.

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