The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has uncovered no fewer than 585 forged A-Level certificates in 2025, the Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has revealed.
Speaking during a virtual meeting with JAMB staff on 2 April, Prof Oloyede disclosed that the discovery was made in the course of preparing for the forthcoming 2025 mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the main UTME.
Out of the 585 forged credentials identified, 13 were traced to the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB), prompting further scrutiny of professional registration centres (PRCs) responsible for uploading the results. These PRCs are currently under investigation.
Prof Oloyede confirmed that four suspects linked to the forged IJMB results have so far been arrested, and investigations are ongoing in collaboration with the police and other relevant authorities.
He alleged that some tertiary institutions may have internal accomplices facilitating the activities of result-forging syndicates, undermining the credibility of the admissions process.
“The Nigeria Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (NIPED) was created, among other reasons, to combat such acts of fraud and to enhance data integrity in the nation’s post-secondary education system,” he noted.
JAMB further revealed that this is not an isolated incident. In 2023, the board intercepted 1,665 fake A-Level results during the Direct Entry registration exercise. Recent reviews by NIPED flagged an additional 13 certificates as fraudulent, some of which had already been used to secure admission offers before detection.
Prof Oloyede urged staff of the board to maintain diligence and uphold ethical standards in their duties, warning against any actions that could compromise the integrity of the admissions process.
The board reaffirmed its commitment to working with security agencies to apprehend those behind the forgery syndicates and to protect the credibility of Nigeria’s higher education admissions system.
