UNILAG announces that from January 2019, graduates of the school who have not collected their certificates will pay N1000 per year.
Due to the accumulation of uncollected certificates, University of Lagos, UNILAG graduates will start paying N1000 per year to collect their certificates from January 2019.
The University in a statement released on its website on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, states that the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe approved the introduction of demurrage for uncollected certificates.
This means that past and fresh graduates of the university must collect their certificates before January 1, 2019. Failure to do so will attract a penalty of N1000 every year.
The statement reads:
“The vice chancellor approved the introduction of demurrage for uncollected certificates by graduates, six months from the day of graduation.
This measure was introduced in view of the accumulation of uncollected graduates.
Consequently, all 2016/2017 graduates of the University of Lagos are enjoined to collect their certificates from the Faculty Officers while graduates of previous years should collect theirs from the certificate office with immediate effect. They have the grace to collect their certificates without accrued demurrage up till December 2018.
All uncollected certificates will attract a demurrage of one thousand naira only per year with effect from 1st January 2019.
All affected graduates will pay the appropriates fees at the Cash Office.
If approved, the publicity will be done through the underlisted channels
However, the move by the university has been criticised in some quarters that UNILAG is not operating on the same level with other 21-century universities.
One of the arguments against the introduction of demurrage for uncollected certificates is that UNILAG does not have a system that monitors the progress of its alumni neither does it care about their whereabouts, but wants them to come from wherever they are to collect their certificates.
Another criticism against the move is that UNILAG which is one of the first generation Universities in Nigeria does not deem it fit in 2018 to have a system in place to automatically distribute certificates to people who own them even if it charges a small fee for doing so.
However, collecting demurrage on uncollected certificates is more or less a tradition among Nigerian Universities.
LASU asks alumni to pay N15,000 for uncollected certificates
In September 2016, Lagos State University, LASU announced in its official bulletin that over 24,000 certificates of graduates who left the institution over the last 10 years were lying uncollected at its registry.
The university management due to the backlog of uncollected certificates, therefore, decided that affected graduates who failed to collect theirs before October 21, 2016, would have to pay N15,000 to collect it.
Interestingly, while collection of certificates is still an issue in some universities, Obafemi Awolowo University has come up with a Certificate Portal to meet the needs of graduates of the institution.
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According to the information on the University website, the certificate portal is designed to help graduates to know how to apply for their certificate and when such certificates will be ready.
Unlike Lagos State University and the University of Lagos, the OAU Certificate Portal allows the graduate of the institution to determine when to apply for their certificates and when to pick it up.