The National Examinations Council (NECO) is confronting a worsening financial crisis after state governments across Nigeria failed to remit examination fees, leaving the indigenous secondary school assessment body with an outstanding debt of approximately N2 billion following the release of the 2025 external Senior School Certificate Examination results.

NECO Registrar Ibrahim Wushishi brought the debt to public attention, revealing a pattern of default stretching back years. The figures paint a troubling picture: states owed N2.8 billion for the 2019 examinations, N2 billion for 2021, and N3 billion for 2022. Between 2012 and 2023, accumulated unpaid debts from certain states reached N5.5 billion.

NECO is not alone in this predicament. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has faced comparable difficulties, threatening in 2015 to withhold results from 19 indebted states and following through on similar action in 2025. NECO has equally resorted to withholding student results annually as leverage against defaulting states, a measure that directly disrupts candidates' academic progression and delays university admissions.

Analysts have linked the crisis to chronic underfunding of education at both the federal and state levels. Nigeria's federal education budget has remained between 5.0 and 10.8 per cent over the past decade, well below the 15 to 20 per cent threshold recommended by UNICEF. Over N135 billion in Universal Basic Education Commission matching grants set aside between 2020 and 2024 remains undeployed by states.

The neglect extends to teacher remuneration. As of October 2024, twelve states continued paying the 2011 minimum wage of N18,000, whilst nine states had yet to implement the N70,000 minimum wage enacted in July 2024.

Clearing these debts remains urgent. Failure to act not only undermines NECO and WAEC's operational capacity but also denies thousands of students timely access to their results and the educational opportunities that follow.