FG Sets up National Education Databank, Targets $9.5bn Market

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The federal government has approved the establishment of the National Education Repository and Databank (NERD) system.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, at the stakeholders’ engagement and sensitisation programme for the project at the Conference Hall, Federal Ministry of Education Headquarters, Abuja.

The minister said apart from the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the establishment of the National Databank for the education sector, the council has also approved the national policy for its operation.

Mamman described the unveiling of the NERD project to the stakeholders as “a pivotal moment in the history of post-secondary and tertiary education in Nigeria and a ground-breaking initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

He said: “In the next five years and beyond, the Federal Ministry of Education, with the support of the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board of Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), the National Library of Nigeria and other key stakeholders will be leading the NERD project as an unprecedented digitalisation and the digitisation effort aimed at capturing from as far back as 1932 every single past academic report and publications ever generated in any of our institutions regardless of ownership type, whether public or private, military or civilian.”