SSCE fee hike: Examination bodies would have generated N175bn annually — Investigation

By Joseph Erunke& Elizabeth Osayande

If the Federal Government had not reversed the proposed N50,000 registration fee per candidate for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, and the National Examinations Council, NECO, the examination bodies would have been able to generate more than N175 billion annually.

An analysis by our reporters of the 2025 figures of candidates who sat the examinations conducted by the two bodies shows that 3,506,489 candidates registered for the examinations, including both internal and external candidates.

At the proposed fee of N50,000 per candidate, the total revenue from the combined registration would amount to N175,324,450,000.

A breakdown of the examination statistics shows that 1,973,365 candidates registered for the 2025 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination, WASSCE, in Nigeria, while 1,969,313 candidates eventually sat the examination.