President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a major reform in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, mobilisation process, making compliance with the National Policy for the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank, NERD, a compulsory requirement for all graduates seeking mobilisation or exemption.
The directive, which invokes provisions in Sections 2(4)(4) and 16(1)(C) of the NYSC Act, was contained in Item 2(ix) of an enforcement circular issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume. The circular communicated the presidential approval for a change in NYSC mobilisation criteria, requiring all prospective Corps members, whether trained in Nigeria or abroad, to provide proof of compliance with the NERD Policy.
According to government officials, this development is aimed at safeguarding Nigeria’s intellectual property, curbing certificate racketeering, and restoring credibility to academic qualifications.
Part of the mandatory requirements introduced under the federal government’s education policy is the deposit of academic outputs by students. These include project reports, dissertations, and theses, which must be uploaded to the NERD database.
The NERD Policy specifies in Section 6.1.23 that these submissions will serve as “a quality assurance check and as a yearly independent proof of continuous academic enrolment and affiliation” while creating a permanent academic footprint for each student, regardless of location.
The policy took effect earlier this year following its formal launch by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa. At the time, Alausa explained that “the approved stipulations for mandatory submission of academic outputs as provided in Sections 2.3, 4.3(1), and 7.6.11(c), among others, of the approved National Policy for the NERD Programme shall become obligatory requirements in Nigeria.”
He further stressed that the NERD Policy is binding on all education delivery institutions, regardless of ownership, whether public, private, military, or civilian. It applies equally to universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, schools of nursing, agriculture, research institutes, and other specialised institutions.
With the latest circular from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, it has now been clarified that effective from October 6, no Nigerian graduate, whether trained locally or overseas, will be mobilised for NYSC or granted exemption without NERD compliance.
The government emphasised that this policy will not affect Corps members already serving or graduates who were enrolled before the enforcement date.
A copy of the NERD Policy obtained by our correspondent revealed that President Tinubu also approved an academic output monetisation and reward mechanism. Under this system, students and lecturers can earn lifetime revenues from their academic works deposited in the repository. This proposal, originally presented by Dr. Alausa to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, seeks to motivate students and supervisors to improve the quality of academic content and research.
The new structure also encourages higher institutions across Nigeria to establish local repositories that will feed into the central databank, fostering collaboration in a system that previously operated in isolation.
The circular further instructed Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and all institutions of higher learning to begin immediate enforcement of the NERD Policy. It also directed the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, to support the initiative with inter-agency data exchange through Application Programming Interfaces, APIs, to make onboarding and verification seamless.
Speaking on the importance of the policy, spokesperson for NERD, Haula Galadima, explained the unique features of the system. She noted that each student’s submission will contain the full name of the student, the names of the supervisor and co-supervisor, if any, as well as the Head of Department and the sponsoring institution.
She said, “apart from the mandate to verify for authenticity as a national flagship, the NERD digitisation programme has a clear objective – to raise the bar in the quality of academic content, output and presentation nationwide. One way NERD intends to accomplish this task, based on its mandate, is to strengthen the supervision processes in the nation’s higher institutions without getting involved in the processes. If our eminent scholars are aware that their names will appear next to those of the students they supervise on a globally available digital platform, there is the likelihood that each lecturer would up his or her standard.”
According to her, the platform is also designed to discourage poor academic practices. “Very few lecturers would want their names associated with poorly produced academic works. NERD is therefore poised to help each lecturer earn his ‘earned allowances’ by providing thorough supervision.”
