The Nigerian government has announced the suspension of accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo in a bid to weed out fake certificates from rogue institutions.

Announcing the suspension on Wednesday, Nigerian Education Minister Tahir Mamman said the sanction would be extended to more countries like Uganda, Kenya, and Niger Republic, where citizens are using fake certificates to secure employment in Nigeria.

“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo. We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up,” Mamman announced.

The move follows a revelation that an investigative journalist had acquired a degree from a university in the Benin Republic after studying for less than 60 days.

122 degrees and academic programmes students have rejected

The Daily Nigeria newspaper journalist revealed that after acquiring the degree, he used it to apply for and get deployed for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

An investigation showed that Nigerians were acquiring doctored academic papers from foreign countries and used them to acquire job opportunities back home, with Mamman terming such learners as criminals and not victims of rogue institutions.

“I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” he remarked.

The Minister, however, did not clarify whether the sanction targets all the Universities in Kenya and in other flagged countries. The Kenyan government is yet to comment on the issue.