HUYE - The degree certificate issued by the National University of Rwanda (UNR) has sophisticated security features making it impossible to be reproduced, a university official has said.

Jawahar Manickam, the director of ICT at the University, was reacting to a story of a Police arrest on Monday of two people who were allegedly counterfeiting hundreds of documents including Degree certificates from the country’s biggest public University.

Talking to The New Times, Manickam said that the certificate issued by the university is produced using specialised printers with embedded security features making it difficult to be reproduced locally.

"The Degree certificates that we introduced in 2008 are made out of special paper with about 60 percent of security features used on banknotes, cheque books and passports,” said the ICT director.

The features include: Guilloche, a rainbow pattern, ghost image and a micro-text. The certificates also have three signatures by the issuing authorities and a University seal.

"Guilloche is a mathematical calculation in the form of a spiral on the paper and on the borders; this cannot be reproduced by anybody except the source because it works on specific mathematical calculation. It cannot be modified by anybody,” Manickam said.

He explained that the rainbow background can only be created from the source because of the complex colour patterns.

"The pattern cannot be reproduced, even if someone tried to forge it, it can be easily identified,” he added.
He said that the ghost image on the certificate is the NUR logo and that a micro text which appears as a line to a naked eye reads ‘National University of Rwanda’ using a magnifying lens.

"This cannot be produced in the normal printers; we use highly specialised printers to print these micro lines,” Manickam told The New Times.

He revealed that all NUR academic transcripts which are currently being produced in paper based form will soon be printed with security features like those on Degree certificates.

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