Pay your N3bn debt— NECO tells indebted states

The National Exam inations Council (NECO) has stated that states indebtedness to the Council for Senior Schools Certificate Examination (SSCE) stands at over N3 billion at the end of 2022 and urged affected states to clear up the debt to enhance the operations of the Council.

The Registrar of the Council, Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen shortly after the inspection of the ongoing NECO examination in Jos, Plateau State, on Friday.

Wushishi pointed out that the council should be able to come up with an adequate debt profile at the end of the ongoing exercise when the dateline for payment expires.

“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.

The NECO Registrar, however, adjudged the ongoing examination to be one of the best in recent times, adding that since the examination started, the Council has not recorded a major hitch.

In the course of this supervision, we have so far covered seven states, including Plateau State, where we met with various stakeholders, including traditional rulers, among others. From all indications, the examination is going on as planned; there is no major issue as far as the conduct of the examination is concerned.

“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 said.

He further disclosed that there was a slight drop in the enrolment of students for the examination this year compared to 2022, adding that this was due to some reasons, including the economic reality in the country.

“A lot of factors could be responsible for the drop, one of which is that states have their own way of recruiting those they want to sponsor based on the considerations of each state. I also think that the economic situation in the country could also be a factor.

“This year, we are 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,” Wushishi declared.