Nigerian govt begins new certificate verification for prospective NYSC members, new hires

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The Nigerian government has directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to begin using the National Credential Verification Service (NCVS) to verify and authenticate academic certificates of staff and new hires in all government organisations.

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According to a circular dated 8 August and issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, the directive was approved on 4 February at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and will commence from 6 October.

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 circular 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.

Directives

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.

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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.

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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.