Nigerian varsity uncovers 42,000 unclaimed certificates, gives deadline for collection

… Institution insists collection is free… 

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

 It has been revealed that over 42,000 certificates have been laying unclaimed at the University of Calabar even after many years of graduation.

The certificates are abandoned at different faculties and institutes in the university.

The Registrar of the University, Mr. Gabriel Egbe who disclosed this in an official memo he shared within the school of which Nation Update was privy to, he disclosed that some of the certificates date back to the 1980s.

The management of the University of Calabar says it has discovered over 42,000 unclaimed certificates in different faculties and institutes in the university.

According to the Registrar of the University, Mr. Gabriel Egbe in an official memo he shared within the school and made available to newsmen, he disclosed that some of the certificates date back to the 1980s.

The memo partly read, “The University management is shocked by this abnormality and therefore directs that all those who have not collected their certificates after several years of graduation should do so immediately.”

The public are called on to inform such graduands known to them that have not collected theirs to come over to the school and do so.

According to the information, those who do not come for the collection before the end of three months from the date of the notice will have their names published and will be surcharged subsequently.

The University Registrar in a separate interaction explained that “What we are trying to do now is to ensure that we make the process of getting certificates seamless so that we do not have a situation where certificates are piled up again,” he said.

Asked to give statistics of the various certificates and grades, Egbe said he was not with the statistics because the various faculties have been asked to collate and categorize the various certificates and report to management.

“I cannot give you the exact statistics now because we have asked the various faculties to compute the categories of certificates and get back to us. What we know is that these certificates have been there for so long and we have advised those who have them to come for collection.

“We have made contacts with some of them and we have told them that it is free. They are not paying anything for the collection. We just want to clear the backlog of these certificates and ensure that we move on from there,” he said.