ertificate Racketeering: FG Links Education Records With NYSC
The Federal Government is set to strengthen digital integration between the education sector and the National Youth Service Corps to tackle certificate racketeering, improve qualification verification and ensure genuine graduates are not denied opportunities. The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday during a meeting with the NYSC Director-General, Brig Gen Olakunle Nafiu, and his delegation in Abuja. Alausa said the reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda were designed to close loopholes in the management of educational records and make qualification authentication faster and more reliable. He said the Nigerian Education Repository Data Bank was collecting and verifying university certificates, while the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure would connect records across different stages of learners’ educational journeys. The minister also disclosed that the ministry had digitised its Education Support Services, including certificate verification, and was discussing an application programming interface with the NYSC to facilitate seamless data exchange. He said the reforms would address challenges such as discrepancies in names and other qualification-related issues that have affected graduates’ participation in national service and the labour market.
Alausa said the ministry would collaborate with the National Board for Technical Education, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, National Identity Management Commission and other stakeholders to develop lasting solutions, including a proposed national Learner Identification Number and a standard framework for recording names across government databases. The government has intensified credential verification amid concerns over fraudulent academic qualifications, with MDAs directed in 2025 to use the National Credential Verification Service for staff and new hires. The Federal Government later moved to make NERD authentication part of the NYSC mobilisation process, while the NYSC announced in June 2026 that it would strictly enforce the requirement. The issue has also featured in investigations involving alleged forged admission and academic documents. On his part, Nafiu commended the ministry’s digital reforms and pledged continued NYSC support. He said the Corps had been pursuing digitalisation since 2014 and had developed systems to improve the reliability of information used for mobilisation and deployment. Nafiu added that the NYSC had complied with the Federal Executive Council’s directive to collaborate with NERD and said the introduction of QR codes had “virtually eliminated document cloning” within the Corps.
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