The federal government has intensified action against certificate forgery by directing all Ministries, Departments, Agencies, military, and paramilitary institutions to begin mandatory verification of academic credentials of staff members starting October 6, 2025.
The directive comes amid rising concerns among academics over declining educational standards and the proliferation of fake certificates across the country. In response, the government approved the full rollout of the National Policy for the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD).
The policy compels every government agency, private institution, and security formation to subject qualifications of staff and prospective workers to strict verification processes.
The NERD system
At the centre of the reform is the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD), a centralised digital system created to preserve, manage, and verify educational credentials, publications, and records at all levels of the education system.
Built as a one-stop hub for academic data, NERD enables instant certificate authentication while serving as a permanent digital archive of academic outputs.
Daily Trust revealed that analysts warn “the policy could lead to widespread job losses, especially in the public service, private schools, and tertiary institutions. Officials, however, argue that the reform is critical to restoring credibility to Nigeria’s education sector and safeguarding future generations.”
According to a circular dated August 8, 2025 (Ref: 58524/111C/579), signed by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume (CON), every ministry, department, agency, and higher institution, whether public, private, military, or civilian must now rely on the National Credential Verification Service (NCVS) to validate academic records of staff and applicants.
Under the new arrangement, no employment or appointment will be confirmed unless supported by an NCVS clearance certifying the authenticity of qualifications. Each clearance generates a National Credential Number (NCN) and unique security codes tied to verified documents.
This approach replaces the older reliance on issuing institutions with a centralised quality assurance system independent of susceptible officials or schools.
The directive derives legal backing from Section 10(1) of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act, 1985, which empowers the government to protect educational integrity. Enforcement will be carried out by NERD, which was recommended by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in May 2023.
The circular also requires all ministries, agencies, and tertiary institutions nationwide to file annual NERD compliance reports by March 30 each year.
According to the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Nigeria has an estimated 720,000 federal civil servants as of 2022.
Past efforts
The NCVS, which forms the backbone of the NERD initiative, was launched in March 2025 by Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, following Federal Executive Council approval.
At the unveiling, Dr. Alausa described the NCVS as “a systemic quality assurance check nationwide to curtail academic fraud that threatens the education sector due to fake degrees, fraudulent qualifications, phoney certificates, and unearned honours from unaccredited institutions and diploma mills.”
NERD officials confirmed the system is now fully operational. In a statement, Ms. Haula Galadima, Executive Director for Communication and Cybersecurity, urged higher institutions, government agencies, and private bodies to comply by registering their NERD Focal Persons, Records Officers, and Digitisation Officers via nerd.gov.ng/onboarding as reported by the Daily Trust.
According to her, “NERD is a quality assurance tool. NERD is a federation initiative. NERD is the federation’s standard for higher education digitisation with the objective of protecting national security and prestige, education integrity, and digitally enhancing the economic values of Nigeria’s education for global competitiveness.”
She further explained that the programme’s mandate includes issuing the National Student Number (NSN), the National Credential Number (NCN), and the National Document Number (NDN), ensuring that all legitimate awards are “identifiable, traceable, verifiable, and validatable.”
In August 2023, former Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, revealed that over 22,500 Nigerians had secured fake academic certificates from institutions in Benin Republic and Togo between 2019 and 2023.
He disclosed that 21,600 certificates came from unaccredited universities in Benin, while 1,105 were issued by unaccredited schools in Togo. By August 2024, the federal government moved to cancel 22,700 certificates obtained from such institutions.
According to him, some individuals used the fake certificates to gain employment in government and private sectors, while genuine graduates continued to struggle for jobs.
“Even within the countries, Benin and Togo, these universities are not accredited to offer degree programmes. I don’t know how Nigerians chose to go to unaccredited institutions abroad to ‘study’.
“Our investigations also indicated that many of the people never even attended the school physically,” he stated then.
High-profile cases
According to Daily Trust, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yomi Odunuga, revealed this about the circular released:
“The circular is self- explanatory and I don’t think there should be any reason for conjectures as regards if it was prompted by a so-called case of fake certificates.”
“I am not in a position to hazard a guess as to what would follow. As you can see, the circular is detailed and addressed to all the relevant agencies”.
Nigeria has faced recurring scandals over forged credentials. One of the earliest examples was in 1999 when Salisu Buhari, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, was forced to resign after being exposed for falsifying his age and claiming a degree from the University of Toronto.
In 2023, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) arraigned Anthony Damisa, an officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State, for allegedly presenting forged academic documents.
That same year, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), along with two accomplices, was charged for forging a University of Abuja result and confirmation letter to facilitate promotions.
The education sector has also seen scandals. In 2020, the National Examinations Council (NECO) dismissed 89 staff for submitting fake certificates.
Similarly, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) announced in July 2024 that it had uncovered 3,000 fake graduates with degrees from unaccredited institutions. At the same time, the government set up a 12-member investigative panel to probe degree mills locally and abroad.
In 2025, the ICPC secured conviction against Iyonu Eseme, a Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) staff, for presenting a forged Trade Test Certificate when applying for his job.
The National Universities Commission (NUC) also published a list of 58 fake universities in Nigeria and began investigating nine others for suspected illegal degree operations.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrade Isaac Ojemhenke, also said he needed clearance before speaking.
“I cannot comment on the matter now because I have to take permission before making any comment. You know I’m just a Deputy Secretary-General of the association,” he said, but had not provided any further comment by press time.
