The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has stepped up efforts to combat certificate forgery and ensure that only qualified graduates are mobilised for national service following 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 while delivering a keynote address at the 2026 Batch ‘B’ Pre-Mobilisation Workshop held in Abuja.
The workshop, themed “Strengthening Institutional Accountability and Compliance in the NYSC Mobilization Process for Effective Service Delivery,” brought together major stakeholders in Nigeria’s education and mobilisation sectors.
According to Nafiu, the introduction of the NERD compliance certificate is intended to sanitise the mobilisation process and prevent fake graduates from participating in the national service scheme. He appealed to Corps Producing Institutions across the country to properly sensitise students and ensure full compliance with the new requirement.
He stressed that the responsibility of ensuring a credible mobilisation process should not rest solely on the NYSC, calling on regulatory bodies, security agencies, and relevant government ministries to strengthen collaboration through improved policy support, capacity building, and stricter enforcement measures.
“When we work together, we make the transition from student life to national service smoother, more transparent, and more credible for prospective corps members,” he stated.
Nafiu also urged stakeholders to confront existing challenges within the mobilisation process with boldness and innovation in order to build a more accountable and efficient system.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Education revealed that 119 out of the 124 Federal Government-owned tertiary institutions have now been integrated into the Federal Tertiary Institutions Governance Transparency Portal (FTIGTP).
Data obtained through the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) showed that approximately 32 million students across 221,229 schools in 21 states have already been captured on the platform.
The figures indicate 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 institutional data to the transparency portal.
The FTIGTP was established to promote transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making within tertiary education governance. The platform provides access to important institutional data, including student enrollment records, research grants, budgets, and intervention funding information.
The Federal Government had earlier directed all federal tertiary institutions in 2025 to publish key institutional information on their official websites as part of wider reforms aimed at improving accountability in the education sector.
Earlier in her remarks, the NYSC Director of Corps Mobilisation, Rachel Ideawor, described the pre-mobilisation workshop as an important avenue for strengthening cooperation between the NYSC, Corps Producing Institutions, and other relevant stakeholders.
She noted that although progress has been made in the mobilisation process, there is still a need to improve service delivery across the entire mobilisation system.
Ideawor also urged Student Affairs Officers to handle their responsibilities with integrity and diligence by ensuring that the information submitted accurately reflects the true records of prospective corps members.
The workshop was attended by representatives from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank, SIDMACH Technologies, as well as 266 Student Affairs Officers from corps producing institutions across the country.
