Nigeria’s ambitious education digitisation drive has recorded an impressive start, as students across the country have uploaded over 11,000 project and thesis entries within the first month of operation of the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) — a flagship programme of the Federal Ministry of Education.
According to data from the NERD’s live analytics portal, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, currently tops the chart with 990 curated entries, followed by Bayero University, Kano (611) and Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State (532).
Other institutions leading in early participation include Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma (493), Osun State Polytechnic, Iree (479), University of Ilorin (469), Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere Ekiti (462), Kaduna Polytechnic (379), University of Benin (374), and University of Nigeria, Nsukka (282) — rounding out the top ten.
Overall, more than 40,000 students have successfully enrolled on the NERD system, with 158 postgraduate entries from 242 active institutions nationwide.
Science and Innovation Lead Research Focus
Analysis of thematic preferences reveals that Science and Innovation dominate the submissions with 5,952 entries, accounting for the largest share of research topics. Interestingly, these figures include submissions from students in Arts and Social Sciences exploring innovation-related themes.
Other high-interest areas include Multidisciplinary Studies (2,091), Engineering and Technology (1,958), Tourism and Entertainment (1,392), Infrastructure and Sustainable Development (952), and Humanities (783).
NERD’s Vision for Academic Integrity and Transparency
NERD, which is supervised by Dr. Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, has also on boarded 135 tertiary institutions for the purpose of academic credential verification, marking another step toward tackling certificate fraud and improving academic accountability.
Spokesperson Haula Galadima explained that one of the programme’s strategic goals is to enhance the quality of academic supervision and integrity in research output.
“Lecturers are likely to be more thorough in their supervision when they know their names will accompany those works — visible to researchers, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs globally,” Galadima said.
She added that the system now includes precision metrics to track earned allowances for academic supervision across institutions, helping government agencies quantify the volume of work done by lecturers outside teaching or laboratory duties.
Gender and Access Trends
The report also shows a slight female lead in submissions, with 6,142 entries from women compared to 4,995 from men, underscoring the growing participation of female students in academic research and digitisation.
A New Era for Nigerian Research
The NERD initiative — part of the Tinubu administration’s education reform — aims to digitise, classify, and archive academic outputs from all Nigerian tertiary institutions, regardless of ownership or level of study. For the first time, Nigeria will have a centralised databank of student research, accessible to scholars, innovators, and industry stakeholders.
The Federal Government’s intention, according to NERD, is to upgrade institutional quality and reduce duplication of research without directly interfering in institutional autonomy.
The NERD portal (https://esmat.ned.gov.ng) currently provides open access to analytics through its Data Analytics and Open Platform dashboards.
While the agency has asked the NYSC to exempt undergraduates whose clearance processes began before the October 6 enforcement date, students across the country continue to upload their theses hourly — a testament to the programme’s rapid adoption.
In addition to thesis digitisation, NERD is implementing two other national schemes: the National Academic Credential Verification programme, designed to eliminate qualification fraud, and the National Students’ Clearing House, which will serve as the central post-admission record keeper for all Nigerian tertiary institutions.
