Nigeria, Jan. 26 -- The Nigerian government said it would introduce a policy shift to empower polytechnics to award Bachelor's degrees as part of moves to end the discrimination between polytechnic and university graduates.

In Nigeria, polytechnic graduates who hold Higher National Diploma (HND) certificates face discrimination in employment and promotion compared to university graduates with Bachelor's degrees.

In the civil service, polytechnic graduates are employed at Grade Level (GL) 07 and cannot rise beyond GL13 or become directors unless they acquire additional academic qualifications, such as a postgraduate diploma or master's certificates awarded by universities, unlike university graduates, who are hired at GL08 and can rise t...