Northern states’ are indebted to the National Examinations Council (NECO) to the tune of N 2.8 billion, according to Dantani Wushishi, Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO.

“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,” Mr Wushishi told journalists in Minna, Niger on Saturday.

He lamented that most of the states owing the council so much money were yet to remit to it, even when the examination body had not withheld the results of the defaulting states.

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

Mr Wushishi reminded the defaulting states that NECO needed the money to pay its staff, organise examinations and purchase materials to run its operations.

He, therefore, asked the state governors to urgently meet their obligations by settling their debts to enable NECO to diligently discharge its responsibilities.

(NAN)