State Govt. owes NECO N3b – Registrar says

The Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Dantani Wushishi, has said that the total amount owed the Examination body by some State governments is a total of N3 billion.

Wushishi who spoke while monitoring this year’s NECO examination in some centres in Jos on Friday, said most of their candidates are registered by their various State Governments, explaining the reason for the heavy indebtedness.

Although he said some States are defraying parts of the N3 billion they owe the council.

“Last year, we were owed N3 billion, but as they register new candidates, they are also remitting part of their previous debts.”

He continued: “Yes some States are owing, but in fairness to them, they are responding positively and after this year’s exams, if they fail to respond to the deadline they have chosen to pay, then we will reassess the level of indebtedness of each State”, Wushishi said.

On the number of students that registered for this year’s exams, the Register said the council registered less candidates in 2023.

“While we registered 1, 205, 888 candidates this year, last year it was 1, 209, 000”.

Explaining reasons for the short fall, Wushishi said a lot of factors were responsible for the shortfall.

According to him: “Since most of our candidates come from States, the State Government chooses the number of candidates to be registered from their States.

“Also the economic situation in the country might have caused some parents and schools not to register candidates for the examination”, he said.

Explaining further on the reason for lower number of registration this year, he said despite the fact that NECO is very strict on the closure of registration date, some States still approach them to register candidates.

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“Some come with about 140 candidates and some come with less”.

“So these could have also contributed to the drop in registration of candidates”, he said.

The Registrar said that the tour to some States to monitor the ongoing NECO exams which started on July 24th, has already visited Northwestern States of Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi and Plateau,  adding that the same exercise was done in South West last year with the intention of going to the South South and Southeast by next year.

Wushishi said that so far the examination did not witness any hitches, as all the materials were delivered timely.

On whether the security situation might have hampered the conduct of the examination, the registrar said that they were able to take care of the contingencies.

“We did not witness many issues as far as the security challenges are concerned. For instance in Zamfara, where serious security challenges are endemic, candidates were moved to urban areas. Even in Adamawa where there was curfew, we still conducted the examination. In Imo, where there are sit-at-home, we still had the examination”, Wushishi said.