Minister assures new certificate management system to curb corrupt practices.

The minister made the declaration in Yaounde yesterday. He was speaking during the 1^st working session of the committee for the putting in place of the new management platform.

The platform is aimed at fully digitalising the process of authenticating and producing equivalence of certificates obtained out of the country. 

According to Prof Fame Ndongo, the system which was tested via its prototype platform Wednesday, will primarily ease the process for Cameroonians in the diaspora who are mostly affected by challenges in the area.

He however emphasised that the system will most importantly, contribute in fighting corrupt practices in the sector through the cancellation of the chain of physical contact. 

“This is a very important project because it will among others, facilitate the process for the automation of the certificate authentication channel at the Ministry of Higher Education. It will resolve the problems faced by our diaspora through its full digitalization,” Prof Fame Ndongo said in part. 

“The new system will equally, upon completion, very importantly help fight against corrupt practices through the cancellation of physical contact which has always been behind the multiple unscrupulous acts,” the minister emphasised.

The process for the putting in place of the system for the dematerialisation of the management of the authentication of certificates and the production equivalence certificates was launched in 2018 after a prime ministerial order.

It is expected to be fully executed by 2024. It is estimated to cost the sum of 100million FCFA and go through close to five stages,

According to the Director of the Information department of the Ministry of Higher Education, Prof Roger Atsa Etoudi, the project has reached an advanced phase.

“Today, we focused on the presentation of a prototype of the platform which was tested with a lot of satisfaction. It is now time to continue these works to ensure that this platform is made available in the days ahead,” he stated. 

System to dictate fake certificates

According to the Director of Information department of the Ministry of Higher Education, the new system will also contribute in helping the ministry dictate fake certificates. 

“This will most importantly, help us easily dictate fake certificates which has been a huge challenge for us in the past,” the Director said.

“In the past, we could have someone bringing a completely fake certificate to the ministry and go back with an authentic one after going through the authentication process at the ministry,” he continued. 

“Another advantage of this project is the acceleration of the process at the level of establishing their Cameroonian equivalence at the level of the Ministry of Higher Education,” he added.

States’ transformation drive

The Minister of Higher Education, Prof Fame Ndongo, in a statement, described the project as testimony of efforts made by the Head of State in ensuring the development of the country’s education system. 

According to the minister, the project comes after similar works from the Head of State, has among other things, seen the putting in place of digital systems in universities, an interconnected internet system and the distribution of 500 thousand laptops to students. 

He reiterated that the project anchored on the E-National Higher Education Network, will contribute to the complete transformation of the Cameroonian educational system. 

Minister Fame Ndongo stated that the project will ensure Cameroon also attains its full development potential through the provision of competitive certificates to students at the end of their training in their respective fields and institutions.