The Story Of WAEC And The Processing Fee

The West African Examinations Commissions (WAEC), the major examination body for West African secondary school finalists is currently under fire.

As a result of an anti-corruption crack down on the examination bodies in Nigeria, a financial discrepancy was discovered by the minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun

And while Nigerians were stilll processing that information, these tweets dropped on Twitter.

This NGO requested the list of best student in each state in Nigeria from WAEC for Scholarship. See WAEC's response. pic.twitter.com/ACWLFHRHr5

— Abd'Aziz Bakare (@Backarray) February 22, 2016

It was alleged that an NGO had requested for the shortlist of the best students in the 2014/2015 WAEC examination.

The purpose of the request was to reward the students for doing well and also inspire other students towards excellence in their studies.

However, the second photo in the tweet was the screenshot of the alleged response the NGO received from WAEC.

They were asked to pay a processing fee of 1.85 million Naira before getting access to the short list.

And after speaking with the NGO for confirmation…

To confirm the veracity of this story, I spoke to the CEO of EDUBOX and he confirmed WAEC requested N1.8million from them for processing.

— Abd’Aziz Bakare (@Backarray) February 22, 2016

The CEO also told me he immediately called WAEC to protest the fees and offered a lesser amount but they said it is non-negotiable.

— Abd’Aziz Bakare (@Backarray) February 22, 2016

As expected, the tweet generated massive reactions from Nigerians. They mentioned how convenient it was for WAEC to announce the failure of the candidates at no cost.

WAEC is grossly unfortunate. They can give the press the percentage of failure per state at no cost but cant do this https://t.co/ni8hcI74yZ

— Funmi ♂ (@Seyi__) February 22, 2016

How they are enemies of progress.

WTH? 1.8M to process so the said students can get a scholarship.

This is how waec will hinder someones progress. https://t.co/9utB390f5b

— Oluwatosin. (@Bohemian_Monk) February 23, 2016

Some felt the response from WAEC was legit.

Hmmmmm… My view might be unpopular, but this is a valid answer by WAEC. But they should have processed a waiver. https://t.co/nf5HkXyNUI

— Bibiire o se f'owora (@yew1e) February 22, 2016

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