Northern states’ governments are indebted to the National Examinations Council NECO to the tune of N 2.8 billion, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, Registrar and Chief Executive, NECO, has said.

“State governments offer to pay examination fees for candidates from their states but when it comes to the actual payment, they don’t do it, and that has strapped NECO.

“Zamfara, Adamawa, Kano, Gombe, Borno and Niger state governments are owing the examination body N1.8 billion debt for the students they registered in 2019,” Wushishi told journalists in Minna, on Saturday.

He lamented that most of the states owing the Council a lot of money were yet to remit to it, even when the examination body had not withheld the results of the defaulting states in the spirit of mutual respect, togetherness and understanding.

According to him, the Council had engaged the affected states in dialogue towards the amicable resolution of the matter.

Wushishi reminded the defaulting states that it was with this money that NECO paid the staff involved in carrying out the examinations, in addition to buying needed materials for the smooth conduct of the Senior Secondary School Examination.

He, therefore, appealed to the governors of the Northern states to, as a matter of urgency, meet their obligations by settling their debts to enable NECO to diligently discharge its responsibilities.