The Federal Government has directed nationwide enforcement of the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) regulations on academic credential verification, effective October 6, in a decisive move to combat certificate racketeering and the abuse of academic honours.
The directive, contained in a service-wide circular signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, mandates all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), as well as public and private tertiary institutions, to begin an intensive and structured verification of staff and prospective employees through the National Credential Verification Service (NCVS) of the NERD programme.
Under the new policy, all credentials presented for employment or promotion must receive instant NCVS clearance before confirmation of appointment. The clearance will include a National Credential Number (NCN) and document security codes assigned to each verified academic document.
The policy, which invokes Section 10(1) of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act 1985, aims to ensure every certificate, diploma, honour, or award paraded anywhere in Nigeria is earned from an accredited institution and is identifiable, traceable, verifiable, and validatable at the click of a button.
The National Credential Verification Service — the flagship of the NERD programme — was introduced by Minister of Education Dr. Tunji Alausa in March 2025 following Federal Executive Council approval. It was designed to curb fake degrees, qualification fraud, bogus certificates, and unearned honours from unaccredited institutions.
Ms. Haula Galadima, Executive Director in charge of Communication and Cybersecurity for the NERD programme, confirmed in an email that all services are now fully operational. She urged post-secondary institutions, MDAs, and the organised private sector to enrol their NERD Focal Persons and Digitisation Officers on the agency’s website.
“NERD is the federation’s standard for higher education digitisation, with the objective of protecting national security and prestige, education integrity, and digitally enhancing the economic values of Nigeria’s education for global competitiveness,” Galadima said.
She explained that NERD’s mandate includes administering the National Student Number (NSN), National Credential Number (NCN), and National Document Number (NDN) to ensure that each genuine award or honour from accredited institutions in Nigeria is identifiable and verifiable.
“What the Federal Government has done is to create the nation’s official one-stop shop for data consistency that operates as an interconnection of decentralised systems. Each system remains autonomous but is now coordinated in the larger strategic interest of the nation,” she added.
The NERD Governing Council, chaired by the Minister of Education, comprises key leaders of the higher education sector and agencies responsible for data privacy. Compliance with the NERD policy will now be a prerequisite for privileges and services from various agencies, with inter-organisational data exchange support built into the system.
This marks the first time Nigeria will centrally enforce credential verification outside the control of individual institutions, ushering in a new era of academic quality assurance nationwide.
