The federal government has approved new guidelines for the mobilization of graduates for national service organized by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

President Bola Tinubu invoked provisions in Sections 2(4)(4) and 16(1)(C) of the NYSC Act, and approved a far-reaching reform that makes compliance with the National Policy for the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) a mandatory requirement for mobilization into or exemption from the NYSC.

One of the new mandatory requirements of Nigerian students in the policy is the deposit of academic outputs, which include thesis or project reports.

The new policy is meant to check certificate racketeering and honour abuse.

The compliance directive was Item 2(ix) in an enforcement circular recently issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, who conveyed the approval for the adjustment of “NYSC mobilization criteria in accordance with the President’s regulation requiring proof of NERD Policy compliance for all prospective Corps members, regardless of where they were educated.”

In Section 6.1.23 of the policy, the requirement 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.

Earlier in March 2025, while issuing the Declaration of Effectiveness for NERD, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, stated that following the declaration, “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 stated that “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, specialized research centres and institutes, etc.”

The SGF circular has now clarified that, effective from October 6, no Nigerian graduate – whether from a Nigerian university, polytechnic, college of education, or an overseas institution will henceforth be mobilized for or exempted from NYSC without proof of NERD compliance.

The new policy is expected to safeguard the nation’s intellectual assets while restoring credibility to academic processes and qualifications.

The directive does not, however, affect serving Corps members or those enrolled before the enforcement date.

A copy of the approved NERD policy obtained by our correspondent showed that the President also approved an academic output monetization and reward mechanism for students and their lecturers, which was proposed to the Federal Cabinet by Alausa to ensure students and lecturers earn lifetime revenues from their academic deposits.

The policy encourages each higher institution to set up its local repository.

More significantly, the policy creates an illuminated pathway with a well-structured collaborative framework where the various autonomous institutions had hitherto operated as silos.

The Federal Government’s circular to Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), and higher institutions of learning (public and private, civilian and military alike) directs full enforcement with the NERD Policy.

In addition, critical data bodies, including the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), are to provide inter-organization data exchange support via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to facilitate onboarding and data validation.

The Spokesperson for NERD, Haula Galadima, explained that each item deposited by a student shall feature the full name of the student, and those of his supervisor, co-supervisor, if any, and that of the Head of Department, as well as the sponsoring institution and department.

She said, “Apart from the mandate to verify for authenticity as a national flagship, the NERD digitization 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. 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 added that the onboarding process for all higher institutions, MDAs and corporate organizations is through https://ned.gov.ng/onboarding. (The Nation)