NYSC set for crackdown on certificate forgery through NERD enforcement

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has intensified efforts to tackle certificate forgery and ensure that only qualified graduates are mobilised for national service, with the enforcement of the Federal Government’s directive requiring all Prospective Corps Members (PCMs) to present a compliance certificate from the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD). 

The director-general of the NYSC, Olakunle Nafiu, disclosed this during his keynote address at the 2026 Batch ‘B’ Pre-Mobilisation Workshop in Abuja. 

The workshop, themed ‘Strengthening Institutional Accountability and Compliance in the NYSC Mobilization Process for Effective Service Delivery,’ brought together key stakeholders in the education and mobilisation sectors. 

According to the NYSC boss, the enforcement of the NERD compliance certificate is aimed at sanitising the mobilisation process and preventing fake graduates from participating in the national service scheme. 

He appealed to Corps Producing Institutions (CPIs) across the country to adequately sensitise their students and ensure full compliance with the directive. 

Nafiu stressed that the responsibility of ensuring credible mobilisation should not rest solely on the NYSC, urging regulatory agencies, security institutions, and relevant government ministries to strengthen collaboration through policy support, capacity building, and strict enforcement mechanisms. 

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“When we work in synergy, we ease the path for our prospective corps members, ensuring that their transition from student to national service is smooth, transparent, and credible,” he said. 

“Let us be bold in confronting the obstacles before us and creative in fashioning solutions that will stand the test of time. Let us build a more accountable, transparent, and efficient mobilisation process for the benefit of all,”  he added.

Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Education has revealed that 119 out of the 124 Federal Government-owned tertiary institutions have been integrated into the Federal Tertiary Institutions Governance Transparency Portal (FTIGTP). 

The data, obtained through the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), showed that 32 million students across 221,229 schools in 21 states have so far been captured on the platform. 

A breakdown indicated that 57 out of 60 federal universities, 35 out of 36 polytechnics, and 27 out of 28 colleges of education have successfully uploaded and submitted their data to the transparency portal. 

The FTIGTP, established to promote accountability and evidence-based decision-making in tertiary education governance, provides access to institutional data, including student enrolment, budgets, research grants, and intervention funding records. 

The Federal Government had, in 2025, mandated all federal tertiary institutions to publish key institutional data on their websites as part of broader reforms in the education sector. 

Earlier in her remarks, the NYSC Director of Corps Mobilisation, Rachel Ideawor, described the pre-mobilisation workshop as an important platform for strengthening collaboration among the NYSC, Corps Producing Institutions, and other stakeholders. 

She noted that despite improvements in the mobilisation process, there was still a need to optimise service delivery across the mobilisation value chain. 

“I urge our Student Affairs Officers to approach their responsibilities with diligence and integrity, ensuring that the information provided accurately reflects the true profiles of Prospective Corps Members,” she said. 

The workshop was attended by representatives of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), National Universities Commission(NUC), National Board for Technical EducationNBTE(), the Federal Ministry of Education(FME), the Nigeria Education Repository (NER)and Databank, SIDMACH Technologies, as well as 266 Student Affairs Officers from various corps producing institutions nationwide.