The Federal Government has rolled out the Nigeria Education Repository and Data Bank (NERD), a national digital platform designed to digitize, secure, and authenticate academic records across tertiary institutions.
The Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, described the initiative as critical national infrastructure for preserving academic credentials and strengthening education data governance.
According to the Minister, the platform has preserved nearly 100,000 digital student submissions, integrated more than 250 tertiary institutions, and enrolled over 133,000 students alongside 6,800 lecturers on the platform.
Alausa stated that NERD also addresses the growing problem of certificate fraud, noting recent investigations revealed cases involving fraudulent foreign credentials from unaccredited institutions.
The Ministry further announced that participation in the NERD system will become a prerequisite for eligibility in, or exemption from, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, reinforcing the platform’s role in standardizing academic verification nationwide.
Alausa reaffirmed the government’s commitment to building a transparent, digitally verifiable, and globally respected education system.
