Certificate Forgery: NYSC Rolls Out Mandatory NERD Compliance for All Prospective Corps Members

Certificate Forgery: NYSC Rolls Out Mandatory NERD Compliance for All Prospective Corps Members

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has intensified efforts to tackle certificate forgery and ensure that only qualified graduates are mobilised for national service, with the enforcement of the Federal Government’s directive requiring all Prospective Corps Members (PCMs) to present a compliance certificate from the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) . The Director of Information and Public Relations of the NYSC, Caroline Embu, confirmed in an official statement that the directive is aimed at curbing certificate fraud and sanitising the mobilisation process, adding that prospective corps members without a compliance certificate from NERD will not be mobilised for national service .

The Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, disclosed this during his keynote address at the 2026 Batch ‘B’ Pre-Mobilisation Workshop held in Abuja . The workshop, themed “Strengthening Institutional Accountability and Compliance in the NYSC Mobilization Process for Effective Service Delivery,” brought together key stakeholders in the education and mobilisation sectors, including representatives of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Federal Ministry of Education (FME), the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank, SIDMACH Technologies, as well as 266 Student Affairs Officers from various corps producing institutions nationwide .

According to the NYSC boss, the enforcement of the NERD compliance certificate will take effect starting from the 2026 Batch B orientation camp and is aimed at sanitising the mobilisation process and preventing fake graduates from participating in the national service scheme . He appealed to Corps Producing Institutions (CPIs) across the country to adequately sensitise their students and ensure full compliance with the directive. Nafiu stressed that the responsibility of ensuring credible mobilisation should not rest solely on the NYSC, urging regulatory agencies, security institutions, and relevant government ministries to strengthen collaboration through policy support, capacity building, and strict enforcement mechanisms .

“When we work in synergy, we ease the path for our prospective corps members, ensuring that their transition from student to national service is smooth, transparent, and credible,” Nafiu said. “Let us be bold in confronting the obstacles before us and creative in fashioning solutions that will stand the test of time. Let us build a more accountable, transparent, and efficient mobilisation process for the benefit of all”.

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The NERD platform is a comprehensive national digital infrastructure designed to secure, digitise and authenticate academic records across tertiary institutions in Nigeria, serving as a strategic national infrastructure aimed at protecting the integrity of Nigerian academic qualifications while positioning the education sector for the digital age . According to the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON, graduates whose academic records are not captured in the NERD platform will not be eligible for the NYSC . Speaking during a national capacity-building programme for school representatives organised to support the implementation of NERD, Alausa said linking access to verified academic records will serve as a strong deterrent against certificate forgery and other forms of academic fraud .

The Minister revealed that within just four months of enforcement, the system had already preserved nearly 100,000 digital student submissions and onboarded more than 250 universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education for real-time credential verification . He added that over 133,000 students and 6,800 lecturers are currently registered on the platform, supported by more than 655 institutional focal persons nationwide . Through collaboration with Nigerian technology entrepreneurs, the programme has also facilitated the establishment of more than 1,000 digital service centres across the country, generating over 3,000 jobs .

Key components of the NERD system include the National Credential Number, National Credential Revocation Service, National Student Clearing House, Federated Repository of Academic Theses and Abstracts, and the National Academic Publication and Indexing Database . The Chief Executive Officer of NERD, Tunji Ariyomo, emphasised the importance of preserving academic knowledge and research outputs, noting that nations that lead globally are those that effectively document and build upon their knowledge systems . He explained that the platform documents academic projects, theses, and dissertations along with supervisors, co-supervisors, and departmental heads, strengthening accountability and improving the quality of academic supervision .

Alausa further announced the establishment of the NERD Annual National Laureate Prize and Awards Programme, aimed at promoting academic excellence by recognising outstanding undergraduate, master’s and doctoral research works with prizes ranging from ₦5 million to ₦20 million, with the maiden edition scheduled for November this year . Beyond NYSC participation, Alausa said compliance with NERD would become mandatory for institutions seeking access to services from agencies such as TETFund, the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education, the National Commission for Colleges of Education and the Industrial Training Fund, making institutional participation a requirement for accessing services from these agencies . The minister added that the government had already acted against fraudulent qualifications obtained abroad, particularly from unaccredited institutions in neighbouring countries, noting that individuals found with such certificates had been removed from public service.

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Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Education has revealed that 119 out of the 124 Federal Government-owned tertiary institutions have been integrated into the Federal Tertiary Institutions Governance Transparency Portal (FTIGTP) . The data, obtained through the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) , showed that 32 million students across 221,229 schools in 21 states have so far been captured on the platform . A breakdown indicated that 57 out of 60 federal universities, 35 out of 36 polytechnics, and 27 out of 28 colleges of education have successfully uploaded and submitted their data to the transparency portal .

The FTIGTP, established to promote accountability and evidence-based decision-making in tertiary education governance, provides access to institutional data, including student enrolment, budgets, research grants, and intervention funding records . The portal, launched in 2025, was introduced as a unified platform for tracking and analysing key performance and funding metrics across federal tertiary institutions using data from the past three years, designed to promote transparency and provide interactive reports and visualisations to support evidence-based decision-making in the tertiary education system . The Federal Government had, in 2025, mandated all federal tertiary institutions to publish key institutional data on their websites as part of broader reforms in the education sector .

As part of reforms aimed at improving accountability and efficiency, the government in May 2025 fixed a minimum student enrolment benchmark of 2,000 for tertiary institutions . However, findings revealed that the benchmark was later reduced by 50 per cent following pressure from heads of institutions. Speaking at the 2025 Policy Meeting in Abuja, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, said tertiary institutions with student populations below 1,000 would no longer benefit from intervention funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) . Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, confirmed that the policy was already being implemented using a “carrot-and-stick” approach to encourage compliance among institutions, explaining that allocations are now competitive, with interventions given to institutions that can demonstrate their ability to use funds effectively .

The NYSC has also announced a partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to simplify biometric verification for prospective corps members nationwide. The partnership aims to enable seamless registration through technology-driven reforms designed to improve service delivery and reduce bottlenecks in the mobilisation process . Nafiu explained that the partnership is part of efforts to deepen digital reforms within the scheme, noting that registration, mobilisation, payments, and record-keeping processes have largely been digitized to enhance operational efficiency across Nigeria, with the goal of allowing corps members to register from home using NIMC biometrics .

Earlier in her remarks, the NYSC Director of Corps Mobilisation, Rachel Ideawor, described the pre-mobilisation workshop as an important platform for strengthening collaboration among the NYSC, Corps Producing Institutions, and other stakeholders . She noted that despite improvements in the mobilisation process, there was still a need to optimise service delivery across the mobilisation value chain. “I urge our Student Affairs Officers to approach their responsibilities with diligence and integrity, ensuring that the information provided accurately reflects the true profiles of Prospective Corps Members,” she said . The NYSC has emphasised that effective mobilisation requires collective responsibility from all stakeholders and is not solely the responsibility of the scheme, but depends on cooperation from all relevant agencies .

With the new enforcement taking effect from the 2026 Batch B orientation camp, all Prospective Corps Members are advised to ensure their academic records are properly uploaded and verified on the NERD platform before applying for mobilisation . Officials have clarified that the rule applies to all higher institutions, including universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, while graduates already serving in the NYSC before the policy’s enforcement are not affected. The government maintains that the move is part of broader reforms aimed at improving the credibility and transparency of Nigeria’s education system as part of the Nigerian Education Sector Renewed Initiative (NESRI) , a six-point agenda designed to transition the country from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy .

 

Certificate Forgery: NYSC Rolls Out Mandatory NERD Compliance for All Prospective Corps Members