A commission comprising many ministers has been established by the federal government to address the problem of counterfeit degrees in the nation’s educational system.
On Tuesday in Abuja, Ben Goong, the Federal Ministry of Education’s Director of Press and Public Relations, disclosed this information.
The issue of fake degrees has been in the news recently due to an investigation by reporter Umar Audu of the Daily Nigerian newspaper into the operations of degree mills in the Benin Republic and Togo. According to Goong sa, “Education Minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman, will this afternoon, inaugurate an inter-ministerial committee on degree mills.”
The reporter told of how he completed his degree program in six weeks and even started his mandated youth service program through the National Youth Service Corps, or NYSC.
Audu received a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication credential from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, Cotonou, Benin Republic, in February 2023 after contacting the syndicate that specializes in selling degree certificates in December 2022.
The Nigerian government banned the certification and evaluation of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo as a result of the investigation that exposed the illegalities committed by several academic institutions in the West African republics.
Later on, the minister of education declared that the administration of President Bola Tinubu will broaden its scope to include institutions in other African nations like Ghana.
Statistics from the National Association of Nigerian Students in Benin Republic and Togo indicate that as of right now, no fewer than 10,900 Nigerian students enrolled in universities in Beninois and Togo are anticipated to be impacted by the ban imposed by the Nigerian government.
Furthermore, at least 18 of the 58 universities in Nigeria whose operations have been suspended are foreign-owned, according to the National Universities Commission, the agency that oversees higher education in that country.
