The Federal Government of Nigeria has intensified its crackdown on certificate racketeering and the abuse of academic honours. As part of this move, it has announced the nationwide enforcement of strict regulations on academic credential verification, which will take effect from October 6, 2025.
This directive was revealed in a service-wide circular issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, dated August 8, 2025. A copy of the circular was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to the circular, all Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), and higher institutions across Nigeria, whether civilian, military, public, or private, must begin a thorough and structured verification of academic credentials for all current staff and new recruits. This process will be carried out through the National Credential Verification Service (NCVS), a key component of the National Education Repository and Databank (NERD) programme.
The circular stated that, going forward, every new recruitment must include an NCVS clearance confirming the authenticity of each academic credential presented. This clearance will be mandatory before any appointment is confirmed.
The NCVS clearance will contain a National Credential Number (NCN) unique to each verified credential, as well as security codes for the associated documents. These measures are designed to make every academic qualification identifiable, traceable, verifiable, and validatable.
Senator Akume emphasized in the circular that this reform represents a major step in combating fake degrees, forged certificates, and other forms of academic fraud. He stated that it marks a departure from the traditional practice of relying solely on institutions or agencies to verify documents, which has often been compromised. Instead, this system introduces a nationwide quality assurance process that operates independently and securely.
The policy is backed by Section 10(1) of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions Act 1985), which governs national education standards and seeks to protect academic integrity. Enforcement of this new directive has been assigned to the newly established NERD programme, which was first proposed by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in May 2023.
The NCVS was officially introduced in March 2025 by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, after the Federal Executive Council approved his memorandum. This approval led to a National Proclamation and Declaration of Effectiveness for the NERD programme.
During the launch, Dr. Alausa described the NCVS as a powerful tool for tackling the growing problem of fake qualifications and unearned honours. He said, “The launch of the NCVS is a systemic quality assurance check nationwide to curtail academic fraud which threatens the integrity of the education sector due to the activities of merchants of fake degrees, qualification fraud, phoney certificates, as well as bogus unearned honours from unaccredited institutions and diploma mills.”
Speaking further on the development, Ms. Haula Galadima, the Executive Director in charge of Communication and Cybersecurity for the NERD programme, confirmed in an email that all services under the NERD programme are now fully operational. She urged post-secondary schools, tertiary institutions, MDAs, and the organized private sector to comply with the federal directive by registering their NERD Focal Persons, Records Officers, and Digitisation Officers on the agency’s official website, ned.gov.ng/onboarding.
According to her, “NERD is a quality assurance tool. NERD is a federation initiative. 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 explained that one of the core functions of NERD is to oversee the issuance of the National Student Number (NSN), the National Credential Number (NCN), and the National Document Number (NDN). These identifiers will ensure that every legitimate academic award or honour from an accredited Nigerian institution can be instantly traced and verified.
She added, “Such records will enable NERD to host the National Database of Resource Persons, where every genuine honour can be instantly verified.”
Addressing the root of the problem, Galadima highlighted why fake certificates have persisted for so long. “Fake degrees, fake academic titles, and unearned honours persist because culprits know that the process of being found out is laborious. There are numerous qualified institutions, but no one can rule out the possibility of collusion by a few compromised individuals within some of those institutions,” she said.
She went on to explain how the federal government’s solution addresses this issue. “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. So, the various systems are still decentralised. Each system remains autonomous. But Nigeria now has a tool to facilitate organic digital cooperation and coordination of these decentralised systems in the larger strategic interest of the nation.”
Galadima also provided further details about the structure and governance of NERD. She noted that, as approved by the Federal Executive Council, the programme is collectively owned by all post-secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria, along with their respective regulatory bodies.
“The NERD Governing Council is comprised of key leaders of the various arms that constitute the nation’s higher education sector and agencies with roles that are tangential to data privacy,” she stated.
Quoting sections of the NERD National Policy, Galadima said the Governing Council includes top executives from several bodies. These include the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), National Library, Committee of Vice Chancellors of all Nigerian Universities, Committee of Rectors of all Nigerian Polytechnics, Committee of Provosts of all Nigerian Colleges of Education, and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
“The NERD Council is headed by the Honourable Minister of Education,” she added.