The National Examinations Council (NECO) has unveiled an e-platform for verification and confirmation of results of examinations, called NECO e-verify.
The Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO, Prof. Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, at the unveiling of the platform in Abuja on Thursday, said the process will help to ensure accuracy of academic credentials.
The platform is designed to perform dual result verification purposes like the instant result verification and institutional bulk verification.
The main goal is to prevent educational institutions, employers, and other agencies from granting admission or hiring unqualified persons that may hinder the ease of achieving set goals, helping organisations to seamlessly verify the authenticity of NECO results presented to them for admission or recruitment anywhere around the globe.
At the unveiling, Wushishi noted that the platform will bring a great deal of relief to millions of examination candidates, educational institutions and other stakeholders.
“Due to the growing need for verification and confirmation of results by institutions both home and abroad, the Council decided that now was the best time to introduce the e-Verify platform.
“The ‘NECO e-Verify’ is an Online Result Verification solution that guarantees instant authentication of academic and basic information about prospective candidates for admission and employment into academic institutions and work places respectively.
“Result verification is an important process that helps to ensure the accuracy of academic credentials.
“By verifying the authenticity of candidates’ results, academic institutions and employers will be more confident that they are admitting and hiring persons who have the required qualification for further studies and specific job schedules,” he said.
Speaking on its benefits, he said it increased confidence, reduce the risk of admitting/hiring unqualified persons that can lead to a number of risk such as poor academic performance, decreased productivity, low morale and improved efficiency.
“With proper verification of candidates results, institutions and businesses will run more efficiently as they will be able to recruit the best applicants that are capable of learning faster and employees that can carry out their duties without or with minimal supervision.
“This also places universities and other tertiary institutions on a good pedestal as candidates with questionable results would not dare to apply for admission,” he added.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, described the platform as a game changing initiative.
He said with the unveiling, NECO was aligning itself with global best practices, while commending the examination body for the efforts in creating the platform.
“This is another way of discouraging fraud and ensuring transparency in the system.
“All Vice Chancellors of universities, Rectors of Polytechnics, Provost of Colleges of Education, heads of other institutions are therefore, mandated to make use of the NECO e-verify software for verifying all candidates’ results that sat the NECO examinations.”
For her part, the chairperson of the occasion, Dr. Akon Etim Eyakenyi, the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom state, said the software was a product of a good thinking and implementation and was a good step in right direction.
She said ICT has revolutionarised human interaction, redefine learning and transform government operations, hence the need for the software.
“We are on a world where robot are effectively replacing humans. This is the era of e-learning, e-commerce and e-government and Nigeria needs to double up and that is what NECO is trying to do today,” she stated.
She charged NECO to work towards full automation of its operations while encouraging schools to embrace technology, adding that the platform will go a long way to help students and Nigerians in general.
