By Jimmy Jackson
A total of 70,603 candidates, on Saturday, sat for the 2024 National Common Entrance Examination, NCEE, conducted by the National Examinations Council, NECO, to enable them gain admission into the 115 Federal Government Colleges commonly referred to as Unity Colleges.
The Registrar of NECO, Prof Dantani Wushishi, disclosed this while monitoring the exercise on Saturday, at Model Secondary School, Maitama and Government Day Secondary School, Wuse 2 Abuja.
Wushishi said the examination was conducted in 599 centres across the country.
“We have 33,335 males who registered and 37,000 plus females, we have a total of 70,608 that are so far registered which is below last year.
“Last year it was about 72,000 plus. So you find that generally for the male and female, last year’s registration was higher than this year’s registration.
“This could be attributed to so many factors, economic factors are the most prevalent factor that may hinder large registration.
“We all know what is happening in the economy and it is affecting everybody. The bulk of the population is in the rural areas and in some states, they don’t sponsor candidates at this level. It’s the parents who sponsor the candidate.
“Sometimes politicians, sometimes traditional rulers so and you can see why economic factor is the most prevailing factor hindering this registration.”
The Registrar further noted that candidates who were unable to register for the examination before 6 am Saturday, were unable to sit for the examination.
“By six this morning, we had cases where even candidates came ready to register by payment of physical cash and transfer. We say we don’t do that. We have a process, and that process should be followed and that is why we’re encouraging parents to make sure that at least they are abreast with announcements and procedures for registering for these examinations.
“This is a national examination where every child of primary school age is expected to write this examination so that the candidates will fill the state’s quota in these 115 Unity colleges.”
