The Federal Government has announced plans to reward the best undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral theses in Nigeria with prizes ranging from ₦5 million to ₦20 million, starting from November 2026.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in Abuja during the 2026 national capacity building programme on the implementation and enforcement of the Nigeria Education Repository and Data Bank policy.
According to the minister, the initiative will be implemented through the newly approved NERD Annual National Laureate Prize and Awards Programme, which will recognise outstanding academic research across Nigerian tertiary institutions.
He explained that the awards are designed to encourage academic excellence, strengthen research culture in Nigerian universities and ensure that high-quality academic work receives national recognition.
“To further promote academic excellence, I have approved the establishment of the NERD Annual National Laureate Prize and Awards Programme, which will reward outstanding Undergraduate, Master’s, and Doctoral theses with prizes ranging from ₦5 million to ₦20 million,” Alausa said.
“The maiden edition will hold in November 2026.”
The awards will be organised under the Nigerian Education Repository and Data Bank, a federal government platform created to digitise, store and verify academic records across tertiary institutions in the country.
The minister said the programme will highlight students whose verified academic work reflects integrity, originality and quality research.
He noted that the government’s aim is not only to reward brilliance but also to strengthen trust in Nigeria’s academic system through proper documentation and verification of academic records.
Alausa said the repository has already connected more than 350 universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education across the country.
Through the system, institutions issue national credential numbers and run real-time verification of academic records, helping to reduce certificate forgery and academic fraud.
He stressed that the NERD platform represents the government’s broader strategy to modernise Nigeria’s education sector through digital record keeping and transparent academic verification.
“It represents the Federal Government’s firm commitment to education data ownership, zero tolerance for academic fraud, and the preservation of our national academic history,” he stated.
The minister also explained that participation in the repository has become mandatory for several education-related processes in the country.
According to him, compliance with the system is now required for participation in the National Youth Service Corps as well as access to funding and services from agencies such as the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education, the National Commission for Colleges of Education and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
Within four months of enforcement, the repository has already preserved nearly 100,000 digital student submissions that might otherwise have been lost.
More than 133,000 students and over 6,800 lecturers are currently enrolled on the platform, supported by more than 665 focal persons across the country.
