President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has introduced a new rule that, from October 6, 2025, no Nigerian graduate will be allowed to join NYSC or get an exemption letter without proof of compliance with the National Education Repository and Databank (NERD).
This new rule was announced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, in a circular sent out on Sunday.
The new rule covers all Nigerian graduates, whether from local universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, or overseas institutions.
However, it will not affect serving Corps members or those already enrolled before the enforcement date.
What is NERD?
NERD is a national digital platform created by the Federal Government to store and manage academic works produced by Nigerian students and researchers.
So this means that before you can join NYSC, you have to upload your school projects, thesis, or final-year research work to NERD. It is meant to serve as proof that you actually went to school, did your work, and graduated.
“(It is designed) as a quality assurance check and as a yearly independent proof of continuous academic enrolment and affiliation as it is expected to inviolably time-stamp scholarship, academic activities, and footprint regardless of location,” the circular stated.
The NERD Policy was formally declared effective in March 2025 by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa.
“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.”
“The NERD Policy applies in equal measures to all education delivery institutions regardless of ownership type (public, private, military or civilian), whether within or outside the direct supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education, such as Colleges or Schools of Nursing, Agriculture, specialised research centres and institutes, etc,” Alausa said.
Monetisation and reward mechanism
In addition to strengthening academic quality, President Tinubu also approved a monetisation and reward mechanism proposed by Alausa, under which students and lecturers can earn lifetime revenue from academic works deposited in the repository.
The policy encourages each higher institution to create its own local repository, while also linking them into a national database.
The circular further directed key data management bodies, including the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), to provide inter-agency data exchange support via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This will facilitate onboarding and verification of student and institutional data.
Raising Academic Standards
NERD spokesperson Haula Galadima explained that each student’s submission would carry the names of the student, supervisor, co-supervisor (if any), Head of Department, and sponsoring institution.
“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 lecturers are aware their names will appear alongside students’ work on a globally accessible platform, “there is the likelihood that each lecturer would up his or her standard.”
“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,” she stated.
Galadima confirmed that the onboarding process for Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), higher institutions, and corporate organisations is available at https://ned.gov.ng/onboarding.
