Five States Still Owing N2bn NECO Registration Fees Since 2012, Says Registrar

The Registrar, National Examinations Council (NECO), Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, has appealed to the states that are still owing the council for the registration fee of their students to remit their money to keep the examination body afloat.The NECO boss said this while briefing journalists in Lagos after monitoring the conduct of the ongoing NECO Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in some schools, as part of his nationwide monitoring exercise.A total of 1,209,000 candidates are currently sitting for the examination.He said following the council’s renewed relationship with the defaulting states, some are responding considerably, but five states are still owing the council to the tune of about N2 billion since 2012.He stated that the council executes its capital projects and overhead from such money because the federal government does not provide capital expenditure and overhead, but only pays staff salaries.“We have challenges all around the country as far as our offices, equipment and other things are concerned. So we are letting them understand the importance of their paying us to remain afloat, as well as paying for the students to get their results to enable them get admission into tertiary institutions so as to be useful to themselves and the society.”He commended council’s officials, school principals and states for the smooth conduct of the examination.In terms of security, Wushishi said the council made adequate arrangement for the security of the materials for the conduct of the examination. He added that the council made arrangement with security agencies across the country to continue to monitor the movement of the board members and staff and materials.“We also have centres where we employed security agents to guard our custodian points. As far as the movement around is concerned, we have not encountered any security challenge and we have not received any report from any part of the country,” he said.Asked when the results will be released at the end of the examination on August 12, the registrar said in about 45 days the results will be out.He also refuted claims that NECO certificates are not recognised in some African countries, saying that the council conducts examination in five African countries.