- “Where we were paying almost N100 per printing, we moved it to N23 per question paper, so we saved almost N2billion in printing the sensitive materials,” Gana said.
The National Examination Council (NECO) says it saved about N2 billion on the cost of printing questions papers in its examinations conducted across the country in recent times.
Acting Registrar of NECO, Mr Abubakar Gana, made this known on Friday in Minna, during the commissioning of 20 single cabin Hilux Vans and 8,000 biometric capture machines procured by the exam body.
Gana said the money saved from printing of question papers was made possible from an efficient transaction with service providers as well as prudent management of resources.
“Where we were paying almost N100 per printing, we moved it to N23 per question paper, so we saved almost N2billion in printing the sensitive materials,” Gana said.
The NECO boss said the Council also recorded some savings in the area of staff posting during examination, adding that this made it possible for the exam body to remit money to Federal Government’s coffers after its operational costs were taken care of.
Gana also revealed that NECO has scrapped the use of scratch cards in its examination to guide against financial leakages and ensure a seamless online registration, adding that money generated now go straight to its Treasury Single Account (TSA) domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Also speaking, the chairman of NECO Governing Board, Dr Abubakar Sadiq, said with the deployment of the biometric machines, the issue of impersonation in NECO exam has become a thing of the past.
“Nobody can come from another school and take our exam, so impersonation is out,” he said.
Sadiq, however, warned principals against engaging in acts that will prevent the use of the biometric machines in their schools.
“We know there are principals who connive with impersonators in order to cheat, there is no doubt about that, we are aware and we are ready for them. Any principal or any examination centre that will not allow us to capture biometrics of our candidates won’t even take the exam,” he said.
Commissioning the vehicles and biometric machines, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Arch. Sonny Echono, commended the present management of NECO for bringing about positive changes in the conducts of its exams.
Represented by the Director of Human Resource Department of the Ministry, Auwal Koko, the Permanent Secretary, urged the management to ensure proper maintenance of the vehicles.
