The Federal Government has been urged by the House of Representatives to remove the general restriction on degree credentials from the Republic of Benin and Togo.
The request was made following the House Committee on Public Petitions’ presentation and successful adoption of its findings at the plenary session on Wednesday.
Laori Kwamoti, the committee chairman, clarified that the suggestions came after “a petition submitted by Sovereignty Legal Practitioners on behalf of stakeholders in the education sector.”
The petition contested the government’s decision, which was first spurred by worries about academic fraud, to invalidate degrees from universities in the two West African nations.
The committee warned that “the measure could unfairly penalize graduates who legitimately earned their qualifications” and encouraged the federal government to reevaluate the broad invalidation.
Rather than penalizing all certificate holders, the MPs suggested establishing a case-by-case verification procedure to detect and resolve fraud.
The House also demanded increased cooperation between the Federal Ministry of Education and Togo’s and Benin’s educational authorities in order to improve verification processes, stop fraud, and guarantee the correct authentication of foreign credentials.
In January 2024, the Federal Government halted the evaluation and accreditation of degree credentials from Togo and Benin due to an undercover report that exposed extensive certificate racketeering.
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