Federal Govt Sets Up National Education Databank, Targets $9.5bn Market

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 on Tuesday 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.”

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 The minister continued, “This remains the most audacious attempt ever to aggregate all knowledge, past and present, ever produced in our tertiary institutions and post-secondary schools without compromising the autonomy enjoyed by certain cadres of tertiary institutions, especially universities.”

The minister of state for youth development, Mr Ayodele Olawande, who was part of the programme, commended the ministry and said the day “was the greatest day of his life” as he was witnessing the federal government employing the institution of state to solve a most critical national problem on knowledge preservation.

 Earlier, the permanent secretary, David Adejo, stated that “the NERD project is a holistic effort of the federal government to mainstream the culture of perpetual document and record preservation in electronic formats as a definitive craft with positive implications for national security and prestige.”

Adejo said, “The Ministry of Education is collaborating with the private sector to set up the first ever private-sector-led automated National Education Document Bank in the history of Africa as a commercial enterprise and a bold statement as a principal contributor to the nation’s digital economy.”