Following the recent uncovering of cases of fake certificates by the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), examination boards in Kenya and Uganda are now turning to Nigeria to verify documents submitted by Nigerian candidates seeking admission to universities in their respective countries.
This was disclosed by JAMB on Wednesday in a document titled “Registrar’s Report on 2023 Admission and 2024 UTME Policy Meeting”.
In the document, JAMB stressed the need to protect Nigeria’s post-secondary educational institutions from international disgrace and vowed not to tamper with student records.
“The examination boards in Uganda and Kenya are currently writing to JAMB to confirm the documents submitted by the candidates for admission. JAMB would not falsify the documents,” the Nigerian examination body said.
The Federal Government recently suspended the verification of diplomas from Uganda, Kenya, the Republic of Benin, Togo and some other countries because it was accused of certificate forgery.
The federal government’s decision came immediately after an investigation by Daily Nigeria reporter Umar Audu into how he managed to obtain a degree in the Republic of Benin within six weeks.
Following his report, the federal government set up an interministerial committee of inquiry into document forgery to investigate the activities of document fraudsters.
Minister of Education Tahir Mamman, after receiving the committee’s report, noted that holders of fake degrees from Nigerian and foreign universities would be removed from the system.
Some of the committee’s recommendations emphasized that admissions to the country’s universities must be made through the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) and that enrollment lists must be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Education.
