The Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) has endorsed the Federal Government’s decision to initiate mandatory nationwide verification of academic credentials.
The move is part of the government’s efforts to combat certificate racketeering in both public and private institutions and to restore the integrity of Nigeria’s education system.
NIM President and Chairman of Council, Commodore Abimbola Ayuba (rtd.), said the institute endorses the enforcement, which would be implemented through the National Credential Verification Service (NCVS) operating under the aegis of Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD).
“This move, which mandates that both existing and prospective staff in public and private institutions must obtain National Credential Verification Service before their appointments can be confirmed, and each verified credential will be assigned a National Credential Number with security codes to ensure traceability and authenticity,” he said.
The initiative is a decisive move by the Federal Government to end fake degrees, phoney honours, and diploma mills undermining Nigeria’s education credibility, launched in March 2025 by Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, following the Federal Executive Council’s approval.
The NIM boss said that with the certificate verification exercise kicking off on October 6, it would ensure that fake degrees and unearned honours would no longer slip through the cracks by ensuring that every credential presented in Nigeria was verifiable at the click of a button.
Ayuba, who faulted that fake certificates had thrived largely because of weak processes that were sometimes compromised, revealed that “the strength of the new policy lies in its ability to link decentralised institutional databases into a federated system while preserving autonomy.
To succeed, he canvassed the support for the mandatory nationwide academic verification exercise, which, he said, is jointly owned by all tertiary institutions and regulatory agencies that provide a one-stop platform that ensures every academic credential is both authentic and digitally traceable.
