The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, will form an inter-ministerial commission to combat the operations of degree mills today (Tuesday).
The ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Ben Goong, made the announcement in Abuja.
“Education Minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman, will this afternoon, inaugurate an inter-ministerial committee on degree mills,” Goong announced in a press release.
This follows an investigative article by a reporter, Umar Audu, with the Daily Nigerian newspaper on the activities of degree mills in Benin Republic and Togo.
The reporter described how he earned a degree in six weeks and then went on to serve under the National Youth Service Corps Scheme.
Audu, who contacted a syndicate specializing in selling degree certificates in December 2022, graduated in February 2023 and received a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication certificate from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
The investigation, which showed the illegalities committed by several tertiary institutions in West African republics, prompted the Nigerian government to suspend the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo.
Mamman later stated that the Federal Government would broaden its search to include colleges in other African countries such as Ghana.