NERD portal hits 11,000 thesis submissions, 40,000 enrollments in 21 days

This figure, released by the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD), comes three weeks after its portal opened for uploads. The education ministry earlier said the data bank would combat the rising abuse of academic titles and certificate racketeering. It also made the upload of undergraduate theses compulsory for national service, with enforcement slated to begin by October 6, 2025. The NERD, in a communique, said students uploaded over 10,000 project entries in the first three weeks of its digitisation programme. It said the figure climbed to over 11,000 by the weekend of November 8, with 158 post-graduate entries from 242 active institutions. The NERD said over 40,000 students have been successfully enrolled on its system since it became operational. The agency said its analysis indicates that Ekiti State University in Ado-Ekiti leads with a total of 990 curated entries. Others in the top 10 are Bayero University in Kano and Auchi Polytechnic in Edo state. Ekiti State University – 990 Bayero University Kano – 611 Auchi Polytechnic in Edo – 532 Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State – 493 Osun State Polytechnic Iree, Osun State – 479 University of Ilorin, Kwara State – 469 Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere Ekiti – 462 Kaduna Polytechnic – 379 The University of Benin, Edo State – 374 University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu – 282 The analysis showed that science and innovation, with entries of 5,952, lead as the preferred knowledge pillars. The figure, the NERD said, is not derived from science and engineering students alone. Students from arts and social science backgrounds were discovered to be pursuing research topics around innovation. Other higher industry thematic preferences are multidisciplinary at 2,091, engineering and technology at 1,958, tourism and entertainment at 1,392, infrastructure and sustainable development at 952, and humanities at 783 submissions. The NERD said it has also onboarded 135 tertiary institutions for academic credential verification purposes. Haula Galadima, NERD’s spokesperson, said a major strategic objective of the federal government for the thesis digitisation, classification, and archiving scheme is to enhance the quality of supervision without directly meddling in the process. She stated that lecturers across Nigerian institutions were likely to be more thorough with their supervisory work if they were aware that their names would accompany those works to be accessible to other researchers, captains of industry, and entrepreneurs globally. “NERD now has precision metrics to track earned allowances computation in any institution in Nigeria,” she added. “This will help the government to see the quantum of supervisory works being done by our lecturers outside their rigorous class teaching schedules, field, or laboratory work.” The NERD was first introduced in Nigeria in 2023, with the policy approved by the federal executive council on February 4, 2025. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday