The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, has said beginning from this year’s “Batch C”, only academic certificates and transcripts of foreign students authenticated by Nigerian consulates in foreign countries of study will be accepted for national service.

The NYSC chief alleged that some African institutions sell degree and Higher National Diploma (HND) certificates and transcripts to some Nigerian students for between N300,000 to N500,000.

Ibrahim stated this on Thursday at a meeting with representatives of 159 African institutions presenting corps members to Nigeria in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The theme of the event was: Strategies for a Successful Mobilisation of Nigerian Foreign Graduates: The Role of Stakeholders.

The NYSC chief threatened to blacklist institutions found culpable in the sale of degrees and HND certificates to Nigerians.

He said: “In recent times, there has been an upsurge in the number of graduates who cannot defend their degree certificates. Some tertiary institutions simply sell their degrees/Higher National Diploma certificates to persons who never passed through academic rigour. We have evidences of persons who possess originals of such certificates and transcripts from some universities that are represented here.

“To check this ugly trend of certificate racketeering, we strongly recommend that the Federal Ministry of Education liaise with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that all degrees and HND certificates obtained outside the shores of Nigeria are authenticated at the Nigerian consulate in the country of study.”