ACCRA - A 30-year-old Ghanaian man could be jailed for up to five years after writing his wife's paper in a science exam, police in the West African country said on Wednesday.

Kofi Ochere and his wife Christiana Yeboah, 28, a teacher, had both registered for the exam at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Legon, a suburb of the capital Accra.

But Ochere, who did not need the qualification, offered to write his wife's paper while she wrote his.

"He feared the woman would not do well. But at the examination hall, they noted the paper had a feminine name," police spokesman Beneso Darkwa said.

The two had been arrested while investigations continued.

"Both of them could go to jail ... the maximum sentence is five years," he said.

So far eight people had been arrested in Accra for pretending to be someone else during exams run by the West African Examinations Council for private secondary school candidates, Darkwa said.

Many pupils for private schools in Ghana are people who did not have an opportunity to go to school as children.