Check out the six Northern states owing NECO N1.8bn for exams

Six states in the country are owing the National Examination Council (NECO) an amount of N1,788,740,509 for examinations.

This was made public by the NECO Acting Registrar Ebikibina Ogborodi who also revealed Zamfara State is its biggest debtor with N1,022,234,000.

Other states owing the examination body are: Adamawa (N281,455,500), Kano (N240,043,000), Gombe (N7,214,150), Borno (N40,027,675) and Niger (N234,453,157).

The Nations reports that the House of Representatives Committee on Finance had queried Mr. Ogborodi about the non-remittance of N636,778,000 in 2019.

Ogborodi said the examination body had an operating surplus of N1,278,462,493 in 2019 of which it was to remit 80 percent (N1,022,769,994) to the government but was able to remit N385,991,627 only.

When Committee Chairman James Faleke asked him about the balance, Ogborodi said NECO could not remit more than it did due to the state governments’ debts.

“The balance is (pending) because some state governments which did examinations with us are yet to pay,” he said.

The acting Registrar said NECO had written to relevant authorities to help in the recovery of the money.

Faleke, who did not seem satisfied with the response of the examination body on its transactions, threatened that the Accountant General of the Federation would block NECO’s account and that it would get money to conduct examinations.

He directed NECO to return in two weeks with relevant documents on its transactions.