The Federal Government has mandated all higher institutions in the country to “regularly submit their matriculation lists to the Federal Ministry of Education not later than three months after matriculation ceremonies.”
The list needs to be submitted “through the dedicated channel of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,” according to the government.
The proposal is one of the suggestions put out by a committee that was established by the federal government to fight racketeers and phony degree mills in the nation.
The actions of certificate racketeers were the subject of an investigative article published by Daily Nigerian in March, which led the Federal Government to establish an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on Degree Certificate Milling to look into the activities of these organizations.
Daily Nigerian reporter Umar Audu revealed how he obtained a degree within six weeks and even proceeded to embark on mandatory youth service under the National Youth Service Corps scheme back in Nigeria.
The investigative report, which exposed the illegalities perpetrated by some tertiary institutions in the West African countries, led to the Nigerian government placing a ban on the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo.
Following receipt of the committee’s report, Tahir Mamman, the minister of education, announced that those in possession of forged degrees from overseas and Nigerian universities will be removed from the system.
The education ministry wrote a memo to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board dated July 15, 2024. The memo stated, “You may recall that following the publication of allegations of certificate racketeering involving some foreign institutions, especially in Cotonou, Benin Republic, and other countries, the ministry constituted an inter-ministerial committee to investigate the allegations and find lasting solutions.”
The committee’s report was turned in, and the honorable minister of education gave her approval to put its suggestions into action.
“In that regard, I hereby transmit the honorable minister’s request for the committee’s following recommendations to be put into action:
“Mandate all higher education institutions in Nigeria to submit their matriculation lists to the Federal Ministry of Education on a regular basis, no later than three months after matriculation ceremonies, via the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s dedicated channel. All higher education institutions in Nigeria must exclusively conduct their admissions processes through the Central Admissions Processing System, which is run under the authority of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.”
“We respectfully ask that you carry out the aforementioned suggestions and provide the ministry with updates on their progress.”
