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.