Tunji Alausa, minister of education, says compliance with the Nigeria Education Repository and Data Park (NERD) is now required for participation in, or exemption from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Established in 2023 in response to the growing outrage over persistent certificate racketeering, NERD serves as a national digital initiative for managing, preserving, and verifying education data and records in collaboration with government and private sector partners.
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja during a national capacity building programme for school representatives, Alausa noted that the initiative was aimed at strengthening institutional compliance and curbing academic fraud.
“It is important to clarify that while NERD compliance is now a prerequisite for participation in, or exemption from, the National Youth Service Corps, enforcement extends far beyond NYSC,” the minister said.
“Agencies such as TETFund, the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education, the National Commission for Colleges of Education, and the Industrial Training Fund, as well as all accredited tertiary institutions, are mandated to ensure compliance as a condition for accessing their services.”
He noted that NERD is therefore a reform instrument, anchored on transparency, traceability, and accountability.
“The National Credential Verification Service component will maintain a national digital footprint of every academic award obtained in accredited Nigerian institutions,” Alausa said.
”We will aggressively enforce compliance to end credential falsification and eliminate disputes over academic records.”
According to him, the NERD platform is a strategic national digital infrastructure designed to secure, standardise, digitise, and authenticate academic records across post-secondary and tertiary institutions nationwide.
“The Nigeria Education Repository and Databank is not merely a technology platform but a strategic national infrastructure for securing and verifying academic records,” he said.
He cited components like the national credential number and the federated repository of academic test and assurance, noting that within four months of enforcement, the platform had curated nearly 100,000 digital student submissions and onboarded more than 350 universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education for real-time credential verification.
The minister also said more than 133,000 students and 6,800 lecturers are currently enrolled on the platform, supported by more than 655 focal persons nationwide.
According to him, more than 1,000 digital service centres had been established in collaboration with Nigerian tech entrepreneurs.
Alausa emphasised the importance of protecting academic certificate integrity to maintain trust in Nigeria’s education system.
“Let me emphasise that education is a covenant between the State and its citizens. When a certificate is issued, it is not merely paper; it is a national guarantee that due process was followed and standards were upheld. That guarantee is only as strong as the integrity of our record-keeping systems,” he said.
“Before President Tinubu came into government, there was a whistleblower who reported about Nigerians going to the Republic of Benin to study. Some people were getting PhD certificates in just six months, universities that never existed, universities in one-room apartments, giving certificates.
“But today, I can report to you that we moved quickly as a government. Based on the President’s directive, we conducted full investigations. That has been put to a complete stop. And all of those people that got those illegal certificates have all been thrown out of our civil service, public service.”
To promote academic excellence, the minister announced the establishment of the NERD annual national knowledge prize and award programme, which will reward outstanding undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral theses with prizes ranging from N5 million to N20 million.
He urged tertiary institutions to establish robust internal verification systems, designate competent personnel, and prioritise digital capacity development to strengthen compliance and accountability.
Responding, Tunji Ariyomo, chief executive officer of NERD, said preserving the country’s knowledge and historical records is critical, warning that poor documentation has created gaps that hinder knowledge growth.
He explained that the platform documents academic projects, theses, and dissertations along with supervisors, co-supervisors, and departmental heads, strengthening accountability and improving the quality of academic supervision.
Ariyomo added that the platform also addresses copyright and intellectual property issues for students, lecturers, and institutions, ensuring proper recognition and protection of academic work
