The Federal Government has mandated all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to adopt the National Credential Verification Service (NCVS) for the authentication of academic certificates of employees and new recruits.
The directive was contained in a circular dated August 8, issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume. According to the circular, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the policy earlier on February 4, with implementation set to begin on October 6.
The circular said that through the NCVS, an establishment of the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD), all verified credentials will be assigned a national credential number (NCN).
The cicular asked the MDAs to submit annual NERD compliance reports by 30 March each year to ensure compliance.
“NERD will issue guidance and regulations in consultation with the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Council for Colleges of Education (NCCE),” it added.
The circular noted that mobilisation criteria for prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will now require proof of NERD policy compliance, regardless of where they were educated.
It said the directive is to ensure compliance with the NERD policy.
The circular directed the MDAs to appoint suitable officials as NERD Focal Officer (NFO), NERD Institution Record Officer (NIRO), to oversee the onboarding of institution-approved records, master marksheets, and graduate lists, while the NERD Digitisation Officer (NDO) coordinates the digitisation of projects, theses, and dissertations, for the preservation and retrieval of research and publications spanning over 90 years across all institutions.
It also asked the MDAs to transmit the names and contacts of focal persons to the Secretary, Governing Council, Nigeria Education Repository and Databank Programme for documentation, onboarding, and training.
“Treat the NERD-indexed journals as a national flagship, granting them privileges equivalent to other peer-reviewed indexes like SCOPUS for ranking and career progression, allocate budget solely for the activities of NERD focal officers, support staff, and related logistics,” the circular stated.
The circular stated that compliance with the NERD Policy will be enforced as a prerequisite for privileges and services from various agencies, with inter-organisational data exchange support from entities such as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and others via Application Programming Interface (API) to facilitate onboarding and data validation.
