Reports from the newly established National Education Record Digitisation Programme under the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) have revealed that Nigerian students uploaded and curated over 10,000 project entries within the first three weeks of the initiative. The number later rose to more than 11,000 submissions by the weekend, including 158 postgraduate entries from a total of 242 active institutions. According to a statement from the organisation, over 40,000 students have now been successfully enrolled into the NERD system.
The NERD programme, launched by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has also onboarded 135 tertiary institutions across Nigeria for academic credential verification purposes. This development marks a major step in the government’s effort to improve transparency, research quality, and access to academic materials across all levels of higher education.
Live analytics from the NERD portal showed that Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, currently leads the list of early participants with 990 curated entries. It is followed by Bayero University, Kano, which recorded a total of 611 submissions as of press time. Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, ranked third with 532 student project entries. Other institutions with high numbers include Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State (493), Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Osun State (479), University of Ilorin, Kwara State (469), and Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere Ekiti (462). Kaduna Polytechnic (379), University of Benin, Edo State (374), and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State (282) also made the top ten list of highest submissions in the first month of the programme.
Data from NERD also showed that Science and Innovation dominated the national student industry preference with 5,952 entries. Interestingly, these submissions were not limited to Science and Engineering students alone, as many students from Arts and Social Sciences explored research topics around innovation and modern technology. Other key industry preferences include Multidisciplinary Studies (2,091), Engineering and Technology (1,958), Tourism and Entertainment (1,392), Infrastructure and Sustainable Development (952), while Humanities recorded 783 submissions.
Speaking on the progress of the initiative, NERD spokesperson Haula Galadima explained that one of the strategic objectives of the federal government for the thesis digitisation, classification, and archiving scheme was to improve the quality of academic supervision across Nigerian universities and polytechnics. She said, “Lecturers across Nigerian institutions are likely to be more thorough with their supervisory work when they know their names will accompany those works and can be accessed by other researchers, captains of industry, and entrepreneurs globally.”
Galadima further stated that the programme would also support institutional accountability and reward systems. “NERD now has precision metrics to track earned allowances computation in any institution in Nigeria. This will help the government to see the quantum of supervisory works being done by our lecturers outside their rigorous class teaching schedules, field, or laboratory work,” she added.
The report also highlighted gender participation data, revealing that more female students enrolled and submitted projects ahead of their male counterparts. According to the breakdown, 6,142 female students completed their submissions compared to 4,995 male students.
For the first time since Nigeria’s independence, the Bola Tinubu-led administration has taken what experts describe as a revolutionary decision to digitise, classify, and organise thousands of yearly research outputs generated across the nation’s higher institutions.
“The goal is to improve the quality of those works, organise and curate them in a location where they can be easily accessed by the industry, as well as make them available to other researchers who can improve upon them for overall national growth and development as a net contributor to global knowledge in a measurable and accountable manner,” the statement said.
Through this initiative, the federal government aims to leverage the NERD platform as a strategic tool to promote institutional quality enhancement without direct interference in internal academic processes. Under the NERD regulation, all academic works are required to be deposited in the national databank, regardless of the type of institution or proprietorship, and irrespective of the level of study, whether undergraduate or postgraduate.
