The National Examinations Council (NECO) and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) have sealed plans for full integration of NECO’s e-Verify platform and expanded Computer-Based Testing (CBT) nationwide, in a move aimed at tightening admission screening and safeguarding the integrity of examination certificates.
Registrar of NECO, Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, disclosed the development during a courtesy visit to the university on Tuesday, where he also congratulated the Vice-Chancellor, Uduma Oji Uduma, on his appointment.
Wushishi said the partnership was designed to ensure that “only candidates with authentic results gain admission into NOUN,” while aligning with the Federal Ministry of Education’s directive to migrate fully from paper-based examinations to CBT.
He explained that the visit was guided by three objectives: to felicitate with the new Vice-Chancellor; to explore collaboration on result authentication through NECO’s e-Verify platform; and to examine areas of cooperation in computer-based testing.
The Registrar recalled that NECO previously handled result verification manually, a process that often took months to process requests from institutions in over 50 countries.
According.to him, the introduction of the e-Verify system two years ago has revolutionised the process, with nearly five million results already verified electronically.
He said: “With the API integration, institutions can seamlessly confirm the authenticity of candidates’ NECO results without delay,” urging NOUN to key into the platform.
Wushishi added that NECO was positioning itself in line with national education reforms, noting NOUN’s expansive CBT infrastructure across the country as a strategic asset in the Council’s transition drive.
Responding, Uduma welcomed the initiative and affirmed the university’s readiness to collaborate, stressing that result authentication remains central to academic credibility.
“Any certificate that is not verified is a paper tiger,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor disclosed that NOUN, which admits about 40,000 students annually, would commence integration with the NECO e-Verify platform from the 2026/1 admission cycle to ensure all admitted candidates present authentic credentials.
Uduma further pledged the university’s support for NECO’s CBT expansion programme, citing NOUN’s network of about 128 study centres nationwide as critical infrastructure for the initiative.
To fast-track implementation, he announced the constitution of a joint committee comprising key academic and ICT officials to interface with NECO.
Both institutions expressed optimism that the collaboration would reinforce examination credibility and advance the overall quality of Nigeria’s education system.
