The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, will today, Tuesday, set up an inter-ministerial committee to combat the activities of degree mills.
The ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Ben Goong, made this known in a notice sent to journalists in Abuja.
“Education Minister, Prof.Tahir Mamman, will this afternoon inaugurate an inter-ministerial committee on degree mills,” Goong said in the notice.
Following an investigative report by a reporter, Umar Audu, the activities of degree mills came to the centre of discussions in Nigeria regarding fake degrees in Benin Republic and Togo.
The reporter revealed how he obtained a degree within six weeks and even proceeded to embark on mandatory youth service under the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
Audu, who reached out to the syndicate that specialises in selling degree certificates in December 2022, graduated in February 2023 and was issued a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication certificate from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, Cotonou, Benin Republic.
The report, which exposed the illegalities perpetrated by some tertiary institutions in the West African states, led to the Nigerian government placing a ban on the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from the Benin Republic and Togo.
Mamman later said the Federal Government would further extend its searchlight to institutions in other African countries, such as Ghana.
So far, no fewer than 10,900 Nigerian students studying in Beninois and Togolese universities are expected to be affected by the Nigerian government ban, according to statistics provided by the National Association of Nigerian Students in Benin Republic and Togo.
Also, the National Universities Commission, the regulatory body of universities in Nigeria, revealed that no fewer than 18 out of the 58 universities whose operations have been suspended in Nigeria are foreign-owned.