Abubakar Sani Sambo, Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, has called on the federal government to close what he described as a “100-year publishing gap” in Nigeria, saying it has hindered the growth of education across Africa.
Sambo, a former vice-chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, made the remarks in a statement to the press on Wednesday. He urged sustained government support for academic publishing and research to strengthen knowledge generation.
The commissioner also praised President Bola Tinubu for promoting digitalisation in education through the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD), a federal initiative approved in February 2025. He said Kaduna State would explore ways to ensure local higher institutions adopt the NERD policy, which aims to curb fake certificates, fraudulent honours, and other education scams.
Under the programme, graduating students must upload academic outputs to the NERD portal, with the National Youth Service Corps aligning mobilisation requirements from October 6 to enforce compliance. Similarly, the Industrial Training Fund will only support students who have deposited copies of industrial training and related reports in the system.
Haula Galadima, NERD’s Executive Director of Cybersecurity, urged students and institutions to fully utilise the digital repository to enhance transparency and accountability in academic publishing.
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