States Still Owe WAEC N2 Billion Registration Fees

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC),
yesterday, said that the council was still being
owed N2 billion registration fees by state
governments for their candidates who sat for the
2015 May/June WASSCE.
WAEC’s Head of National Office (HNO), Dr
Charles Eguridu, gave the figure in an interview
with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos
States.
NAN reported that WAEC had withheld the
results of candidates from some states who had
failed to settle the registration fees of their
students amounting to N4 billion.
However, the council rescinded its decision after
the intervention of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
According to him, there is the need for the
indebted state governments to pay up, saying
that the debt was hindering its operations.
“I want to state that about N2 billion out of the
over N4 billion owed the council by some state
governments was still outstanding. No fewer than
14 states so far have responded to this, but I
think the response should be better. This is
seriously affecting our operations.
“We had entered into a gentleman’s
Memorandum of Understanding with the
concerned state governments because we found
out that they are equally trying to give education
to children.
“And if they approach us, based on that, there is
need for us to oblige them,” he said.
He said so far, the ongoing November/December
diet of its GCE for private candidates had been
hitch-free.
“The only little challenge we had was the
coinciding of some of our examination schedule
with the time of prayer of our Muslim candidates,
and this has been immediately taken care of.
“And so, for now, everything is moving on fine,”
he assured.