The Federal Government has issued a directive to the heads of tertiary education institutions, instructing them to utilize the NECO e-Verify platform for verifying the results of candidates who have taken the National Examinations Council Senior School Certificate Examination and are seeking admission.
During the unveiling of the NECO e-Verify platform in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, David Andrew Adejo, expressed satisfaction that NECO is aligning its activities with global best practices.
He stated that the platform will significantly aid in identifying fake results, particularly during the admission process.
By implementing the NECO e-Verify platform, tertiary institutions will have a reliable means of verifying the authenticity of the results presented by admission-seeking candidates.
This initiative aims to enhance the credibility of the admission process and ensure that only candidates with genuine results are granted admission into tertiary institutions.
He said: “Arising from the fact that tertiary institutions must verify and confirm results of candidates to be admitted into their schools, the need for recertification for results becomes very necessary.
”All Vice Chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics, provosts of colleges of education, head of other tertiary institutions, including Innovation Enterprises Institutions are therefore mandated to make use of NECO e-Verify software for verifying all candidates that will be admitted who sat in neco exam.”
Earlier, Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Ibrahim Wushishi, said 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.”
According to the NECO boss, the platform was put in place to meet the growing need of Nigerians within and outside the country in the area of result verification.
”Prior to this time, all requests for verification and/or confirmation of results were routed through the Council’s Headquarters in Minna, which took a longer time to process.
”Due to the growing need for verification and confirmation of results by institutions both at home and abroad, the Council decided that now was the best time to introduce the e-Verify platform.
”From available records at our disposal, we have observed that there were requests for verification and confirmation of results from 64 institutions across thirty-seven countries over a two-year period (2020-2022).
”Similarly, we have such requests from seventy-two institutions in Nigeria within the same period-this is besides requests from individuals which are numerous.
It is an irrefutable fact that academic institutions and employers of labour, among other agencies, rely on verification of results to help them select the best prospective students for admission and employment purposes.”
Also speaking, the Deputy Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Akon Eyakenyi who was the chairperson of the event, commended Professor Wushishi for bringing the exam body to speed with modern times.
”Beyond making things easy for candidates. It will also generate revenue for NECO. NECO has done well. But NECO must also work towards ensuring full automation of all examination administration processes,” Eyakenyi, who was the acting chairman of the Senate Committee of Basic Education in the 9th Senate, said.
