WAEC explains why it withheld results of candidates sponsored by 8 states

The West Africa Examination Council says candidates sponsored by state governments owing money to the Council will not have their 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination results made public.

Head of Nigeria Office Patrick Areghan claimed that Zamfara, Niger, and six states owed the council for helping them release the 2023 WASSCE during a news conference on Monday.

“WAEC has continued to grant credit facilities to some very credit-worthy and reliable states who pay the registration fee of their candidates. Unfortunately, some States have been owing large sums of money for years now and have simply refused to pay after the needed services had been rendered by WAEC, thus denying us the needed funds to carry out our activities. States sponsoring candidates for the examination must show commitment, willingness, readiness, and ability to pay or redeem their pledges. We make bold to say that the results of the indebted States will not be released along with others,” he said.

“Candidates who have fulfilled their financial obligations to the Council can access their results on the Council’s results website. After accessing their results, candidates can confirm, share and download digital copies of their certificates! Copies of the Result Listing will be sent to schools shortly. I need to restate that the results of candidates sponsored by States indebted to the Council will not be released now until they pay up. We appeal to them to do so to enable the affected schools/candidates to access their results,” he added.

Out of the 1,613,733 candidates that took the test, he claimed that 1,361,608 candidates, or 84.38%, received credit or above in a minimum of five disciplines (i.e., with or without English Language and/or Mathematics).

In addition, 79.81% of students earned credits in at least five areas, including English language and mathematics, according to his statement.

Areghan claimed that multiple alleged instances of examination misconduct were the reason the results of 262,803 test takers were being withheld.

He continued that 16.29% of the entire 1,613,733 test takers had their results withheld.

“The reasons for this are not far-fetched. Candidates are no longer ready to study, they lack self-confidence and preparations for examinations are poor. There is over-reliance on the so-called ‘Expo’, which is non-existent. Candidates got frustrated when they got to the examination hall and discovered that all they had celebrated was fake,” he said.