The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has uncovered at least 585 forged A/Level certificates in 2025 alone.
This was disclosed by the Registrar of the Board, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, during a virtual meeting with JAMB staff, held in preparation for the 2025 Mock-UTME and UTME itself.
Condemning the alarming rate of certificate forgery, the Registrar stated that the Nigeria Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (NIPED) was created to address this challenge.
“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has uncovered at least 585 A/Level forged certificates in 2025 alone.
It was to curb this menace that the Nigeria Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (NIPED) was established,” Prof. Oloyede said.
Forged IJMB certificates
He revealed that a particularly troubling aspect of the discovery involved 13 forged Interim Joint Matriculation Board certificates—an advanced level qualification that allows students to gain direct entry admission into 200 level (second year) of Nigerian universities without sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
These forged certificates were uploaded by Professional Registration Centres, and the cases are currently under investigation.
“Out of the 13 cases being investigated by the police, four culprits have been apprehended and are currently assisting the police and relevant authorities towards apprehending the ringleaders of these examination cartels,” Prof. Oloyede said
He also noted that initial findings from the investigations indicated the involvement of internal collaborators within institutions:
“Investigation revealed that there were internal collaborators in the institutions aiding and abetting this gross misconduct,” he said.
Extortion in CBT centres
Beyond certificate forgery, the Registrar also expressed concern over reports of extortion of candidates at some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres, where students were allegedly charged for services that should be free.
“There were reports from some CBT centres on extortion of candidates for services expected to be free.”
He described the revelations as “mind-boggling,” warning that such actions risk damaging the reputation and trust in the entire admission system.
To address these issues, the Registrar urged JAMB staff to remain committed and uphold the integrity of the Board. He cautioned against engaging in any conduct that could undermine the agency’s work
What you should know
Nairametrics reported that the Board detected 1,665 counterfeit A/Level results during the Direct Entry registration process in 2024.
- Of these, 397 fake results originated from Colleges of Education, 453 from university diplomas, while the remainder came from other A/Level certificates.
- At Bayero University, Kano, only 6 out of 148 certificates submitted for Direct Entry were found to be genuine, prompting increased scrutiny and collaborative efforts to tackle the menace.
- The examination board has raised concerns about tertiary institutions admitting candidates using fake A/Level results without verifying them through the Central Admissions Processing System.
It warned that any institution found admitting students outside CAPS may be treated as complicit in result falsification.
