The National Examinations Council (NECO) has launched a result verification and confirmation portal known as NECO e-Verify.
Registrar of NECO, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, said 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.
He said this during the unveiling of the portal on Thursday in Abuja.
He informed the Federal Government has directed heads of tertiary education institutions to deploy the platform for the verification of results of admission-seeking candidates that sat for National Examinations Council Senior School Certificate.
Wushishi said: “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.”
He said before now, all requests for verification and confirmation of results were routed through the Council’s headquarters in Minna, Niger State, saying this took a longer time to process.
He said result verification was an important process that helps to ensure the accuracy of academic credentials.
The NECO registrar said: “From available records at our disposal, we have observed that there were requests for verification and confirmation of results from 64 institutions across 37 countries over a two-year period, from 2020-2022.”
He added that similarly, NECO had such requests from 72 institutions in Nigeria within the same period besides requests from individuals which are numerous.
The NECO boss said it was an irrefutable fact that academic institutions and employers of labour, among other agencies, relied on verification of results to help them select the best prospective students for admission and employment purposes.
He added: “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.”
On the importance of verifying candidates’ results, he said the benefits include increased confidence; risk reduction and improved efficiency.
The portal, he said, will give institutions and employers more confidence of admitting and hiring the most qualified candidates “especially in today’s world of technology where result forgery is easiest is important to verify students and employees credentials for some studies and positions to ensure that the institutions/establishments successfully meet their goals.”
The Nation