Ondo hails Education minister on technology-driven reforms to curb academic fraud

— Endorses Digitisation Initiative, Directs Compliance

By Dayo Johnson Akure

The Commissioner for Education in Ondo State and former Vice Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, has commended the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration for implementing the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) programme after years of delay by previous administrations.

 Ajibefun commended both President Bola Tinubu and the Minister for Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, for what he described as uncommon courage, doggedness and a keen understanding of the corruptive nature of certificate racketeering.

He said that “the nation speaks about corruption. But corruption includes academic fraud. Corruption includes unearned honour and the unmerited advantages that such fake honours confer.

“I believe we have simply passed the stage of just talking. We have reached the stage of action.

“Using technology and well-targeted regulations to address this danger in the manner being deployed by the Honourable Minister’s team is commendable.

“It will ensure that no institution in Nigeria can offer its legitimate platform as an illegal diploma mill.

“This is one of the best things to happen to the education sector since the return to democracy in 1999”.

Ajibefun, who pledged the support of the state government, explained that he was a resource person during the preparation of the national policy for the NERD programme.

” I have also been privileged to see the demonstration of the technology in action.

“So, I implore colleagues in academia to spend quality time understanding the transformative nature of the programme in bringing an end to certificate racketeering, ushering transparency to tertiary institutions’ research documentations, promoting indigenous governance of the research space, and unifying academic credential verification and assessment”.

The Education Commissioner explained that “NERD adequately addresses current digitisation as something that should now be part of our academic culture.

” It covers historical digitisation to scan, analyse, and classify our tertiary institution’s body of knowledge since the first higher institution was established.

 “This includes each student’s thesis, dissertation, or project report. So, we want to be one of the first to fully align with such a positive and transformative initiative”.

He lauded the Tinubu Administration on the establishment of the National Publication Index, stating that “for over a century, Elsevier and other European and American academic publishers, defined the agenda and direction of academic publications.

 “They birthed elite indexing platforms such as SCOPUS. While we must continue to be part of the global academic community, we need to take bold and intentional steps in order to stop being just consumers in that space.

 “So, the bold step of the Nigerian government to set up the National Publication Index with the private sector as operator is a responsible utilisation of state power to meet a critical national development gap”.

“Providing insights, the professor explained that the Tinubu Administration has approved “clear regulations in the NERD policy that publications in journals indexed in the national indexing standard of NERD, must be duly regarded and accepted for promotion, grants and other typical pursuits and priorities of the academic community anywhere in Nigeria.

“Deeper minds will realise that this is a figurative atomic-grade shift for the Nigerian academic environment. 

“It’s a game-changer! Researchers and publishers across Nigeria and the rest of Africa, especially publishers of institutional journals, can finally have a patriotic national best-practice alternative that ends the silent foreign exchange leakages as well as sets high standards to end the menace of predatory journals”.

Ajibefun assured that “the Ondo State Government will be working with its post-secondary schools and tertiary institutions to ensure that they key into this national revival and conform to all compliance requirements.

“We have made contact with the management of NERD. So, we will be keying into this Mr. President initiative.”

“The Nigeria Education Repository and Databank programme is a mandatory national digitisation initiative for the nation’s education sector that was approved by the Tinubu-led Federal Executive Council in February 2025.

 Recall that the Minister, Tunji Alausa, released the National Declaration of Effectiveness for the scheme in April 2025.

Alausa designed the programme as a high-priority federation project, and it includes new services such as the National Credential Verification Service, which now introduces mandatory security features to all certificates issued in any accredited institution in Nigeria with an embedded national credential security code.

“It also includes the administration of a new National Student Number as a quality control mechanism to ensure that every student in an accredited institution can be validated at all times.

“The programme equally parades other new services such as the National Thesis Digitisation and Depository Service, the National Publication Indexing Service, the National Student Clearing House, and the National Similarity and Anti-Plagiarism Service, among other new quality assurance initiatives.

Haula Galadima, the Executive Director (Cybersecurity and Programme Communication) for the NERD programme, confirmed that all the services are ready and awaiting flag off by the President.

She urged members of the public and, in particular, the academic community to familiarise themselves with the various services on the NERD information portal at ned.gov.ng.

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