Fake Degrees and Authentication in Africa

Libya has become the fourth country, after Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia, to join a pilot project of the Unified Arab System for Blockchain-based Certificate Authentication, launched by the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO).

The ALECSO system helps educational institutions and students to verify the credibility and authenticity of official documents, including university certificates.

The initiative was approved in 2021 at the 18th Conference of Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Arab World. In 2022, ALECSO signed an agreement with K2LIS, a blockchain start-up, to design and develop electronic verification systems using blockchain technology. Then in 2023, ALECSO launched a pilot project in cooperation with the Ecole nationale supérieure d'informatique, Algeria’s higher school of computer science.

Escalating problem

Although a global problem, fake degrees and credentials have been escalating in Africa over the last decade.

In Nigeria, for example, the Ministry of Education ordered an investigation of 107 local private universities, following a report by a DAILY NIGERIAN journalist who had been able to obtain a university degree in just six weeks.