JAMB Uncovers 585 Fake Certificates

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has discovered at least 585 forged A’Level certificates in 2025 alone.

In its weekly bulletin released yesterday, the registrar of the board, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this during a virtual meeting with JAMB staff in preparation for the 2025 Mock UTME and UTME.

Oloyede said Nigeria Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (NIPED) was created to address the 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,” he said.

The registrar disclosed that a particularly troubling aspect of the discovery involved 13 forged Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) certificates, an advanced-level qualification that allows students to gain direct entry admission into 200-level (second-year) in Nigerian universities without sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted by JAMB.

“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,” Oloyede noted.

He also said the 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.

Oloyede further expressed concern over reports of candidates being extorted at some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres, where students were allegedly charged for services that should be free.