States owe NECO N3bn, says Registrar

The National Examinations Council (NECO) has revealed that as at the end of 2022, it is owed over N3 billion by various states across the country for the Senior Schools Certificate Examination (SSCE).

Briefing newsmen on Friday in Jos, the Plateau State capital after inspecting the ongoing NECO examination in the state, the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Council, Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, urged the affected states to clear up the debt to enhance the operations of the council.

He said the council would come up with an adequate debt profile shortly upon the dateline for payment.

“It is true some states are indebted to NECO, but to be fair to some of these states, they are responding positively. It is at the end of this exercise, when they have chosen to pay, that we will be able to assert the level of indebtedness.

“But as far as last year is concerned, we had close to N3 billion. But in some states, as they are registering students, they are still remitting their previous debts,” he said.

Meanwhile he pointed out that the ongoing examination was one of the best in recent times, adding that since the examination started, the council had not recorded a major hitch.

Wushishi further explained that in the course of supervision, the council had so far covered seven states, including Plateau, where the body met with various stakeholders, including traditional rulers, among others.

“We have good and fair assessments from the stakeholders. At our end, the delivery of materials has been fantastic. This year’s examination has been very successful. We didn’t have problems conducting examinations where there were security challenges.

“Even in Zamfara and other troubled states, our examination went on without any hitch, and where there was a threat, we transferred students to safe areas. Despite sitting at home in the Southeast, we conducted our examination without any hitch,” he added.

He said there was a slight drop in the enrolment of students for the examination this year compared to 2022, attributing it to the economic reality in the country and other factors.

“This year, we were very strict in maintaining our date of closure for registration. Those schools that forwarded their candidates after the closure were not entertained, so this as well could have been responsible for the drop in registration,” the registrar said.