Nigeria lost N19bn to exam fraud in 5 yrs - Report

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos - 02.06.2008

Nigeria has lost about N190 billion to poor examination ethics in the last five years, the current report of the Examination Ethics Project (EEP) has revealed.

The report, which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune by the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. Nuru Yakubu, at the weekend, showed that the country had incurred huge financial losses due to examination malpractice.

The report also estimated the street value of revenue from examination fraud at N35 billion.

This development, according to EEP, was largely responsible for the falling standard of education and the increasing evidence that products of tertiary institutions lack the actual skills and competence to defend their certificates.

The report indicated that public examination bodies in the country had cancelled about 2,143,860 results due to examination malpractices and spent not less than N50 million on funding the re-sit of these examinations.

Commenting on the development, Yakubu said that the funds wasted on repeating examinations could have made a difference if they had been channelled into the education sector.