700,000+ verifiable credentials issued by early 2025. A backlog of examination certificates stretching back to 2019, cleared.

A certificate is a small thing until you can't get one. Then it decides whether you can apply for higher education, take a job or move on with your life.

At Tekdi, our core purpose is to catalyze societal transformation by empowering organizations with technology. With Data Science Nigeria, and with funding from the Gates Foundation, that meant helping build DiCert: a platform that turns paper certificates into digital ones that can be trusted.

The Challenge: When Certificates Stop Moving

In Edo State, Nigeria, a backlog of examination certificates stretched back to 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic made it worse: with movement restricted, certificates could not be issued at all.

The process depended on people and paper:

• Results were handled manually before any certificate could be produced
• Students had to wait for, and collect, physical copies
• Institutions and employers had no quick way to check that a certificate was genuine
• Paper is easy to lose and easy to fake

Data Science Nigeria needed a system that would keep working whatever happened outside: one that minimized human intervention, cut turnaround time and gave students certificates they could actually use.

The Solution: Verifiable Credentials on Sunbird RC

We built DiCert with Data Science Nigeria on Sunbird RC, the open-source Registry and Credentials DPG. We chose it for its scalability, its reliability and its open-source nature, which means the wider community keeps improving it.

Instead of printing certificates, the system issues verifiable credentials: digital certificates that carry their own proof. Anyone who needs to check one can confirm it is genuine without calling the issuer or waiting for paperwork.

Two design choices mattered most:

• A maker-checker model. Authorized staff upload results, and a second person approves them before any certificate is generated. Automation never skips the human check where it counts.
• Automation everywhere else. Once results are approved, certificates are generated and assigned to students automatically, with no manual handling in between.

How It Works

1. Upload: authorized staff upload examination results.
2. Approve: a second authorized person reviews and approves them.
3. Issue: the system generates verifiable credentials and assigns them to each student.
4. Use: students download their certificates and share them with schools, universities or employers, who can verify them.

Four steps, and no student has to stand in a queue for a piece of paper.

The Impact: Certificates That Travel With the Student

• 700,000+ verifiable credentials issued by early 2025
• A multiyear backlog cleared: examination certificates dating back to 2019
• Faster issuance: automation cut the time it takes to issue certificates, so students wait less
• Less admin overhead for the Ministry of Education
• Easy access: students can download and share their certificates anytime, with no physical copies needed
• More trust: credentials can be verified, which reduces fraud and builds confidence in educational documents

DiCert is now expanding beyond examination certificates to termly academic results across basic and senior secondary schools, so students get credentials throughout their school years, not just at the end. Because it is built on a DPG, the same approach can be adapted for any domain that needs verifiable credentials.

Building the Tekdi Way 🌱

Build for most, not for few. A certificate system has to work for every student, whether they are next door to the exam board or hundreds of kilometres away.

Sustainable open source. Building on Sunbird RC means the system stands on an open digital public good that others can reuse and improve, and we take part in that community too.

Giving back. Technology only lasts if local teams can run it. In 2024, we trained 50+ people from Nigeria on Sunbird RC, so the capability stays where it is needed.

Reflection

A certificate is only as useful as the trust behind it. Paper asks people to trust the paper. A verifiable credential lets them check.

With 700,000+ credentials issued, that difference means one less thing standing between students and their next step.

Read the full case study: here

Learn more about DiCert: https://educert.ng