By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
National Examinations Council (NECO) has appealed to state governments, particularly northern states who are yet to pay outstanding examination fees of their candidates who sat for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) (Internal), to do so to enable it release results of such candidates.
The Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, had, while announcing the release of the 2020/2021 SSCE for school based candidates on October 29, 2021, also expressed challenges bedevilling the examination body.
Most of the challenges facing NECO in recent times, according to the Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO, is the failure of northern state governments to redeem payment of examination fees for their respective candidates who registered for the examination.
Ibrahim Wushishi who categorised the challenges he encountered since assumption of office as Registrar/Chief Executive into two (internal and external), said the debt burden from mostly northern states is weighing NECO down.
Many of the states, he said, have refused to pay up, adding that it is unfortunate that the affected states, mostly northern states, reneged on the gentleman agreement reached to allow their students sit for the examinations after which the monies would be paid.
Professor Wushishi had told journalists that, “Many states owe NECO not less than N2.8 billion; six of them, including; Zamfara, Adamawa, Kano, Gombe, Borno and Niger owe NECO not less than N1.8 billion debts for the students they registered in 2019”.
“These state governments will offer to pay examination fees for candidates from their states but when it comes to the payment you will not see them again, and that has cash-strapped NECO. Most of these states owing are yet to remit, even as we decided not to withhold their results in the spirit of mutual respect, togetherness and understanding”.
The Council in a statement signed by the Head of, Information and Public Relations, Division Mr. Azeez Sani, made available to journalists in Minna, lamented the difficulties NECO is facing especially in settling some of its debts as the year draws to an end.
Meanwhile, the N2.8 billion debts burden notwithstanding, NECO said it has been able to pay all the 18, 243 ad-hoc staff involved in the conduct of its 2021 SSCE for school based candidates.
Other adhoc staff who were involved in the 2021 school based SSCE that received their pays as at last week, according to the statement from the office of the Head of Information and Public Relations unit, included 887 Assistant Supervisors, 65 and 159 Examiners. NNL.
