The National Examinations Council, NECO, says it is targeting a remittance of N1.2 billion into the federation account by the end of 2018 financial year.
The Registrar, Charles Uwakwe, stated this in an interaction with newsmen in Abuja.
Mr Uwakwe said the council is working tirelessly to complement President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s drive to check all leakages and improve all sectors of the country’s economy.
“We just returned from the defence of our budget in the National Assembly and they have said that there is need for us to increase our remittance to the federation account, which we have already started working on.
“We have improved from N320 million to more than N500 million currently.
“We estimate that by next end of the year, we should be able to remit to the federation account about N1.2 billion, and it is appropriate for us to do that,” he said.
According to him, NECO was fully aware of the weight of the responsibility it is saddled with as the indigenous assessment body and is striving to ensure that it provides quality services and credible examination.
“In doing so, we ourselves do a lot of self-assessment and soul searching as we provide this services.
“I am in touch with all my state officers and zonal coordinators regularly and consistently.
“We do a lot of on-the-spot assessment of situations to the best of our ability. So essentially, it has been very rewarding considering the number of examinations we take within the limit of our resources,” Mr Uwakwe said.
The NECO boss said the council was fully aware of its mandate, adding that prudent management of resources had been its guiding principle.
On accountability by the examination body, Mr Uwakwe said the council does not operate independently in terms of budgeting.
He said NECO’s budgeting process being done under the strict guidance of the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Assembly and the other relevant authorities.
“Every year we provide information as to what we generate and what our expenditure is; and we go to defend it.
“The records of how many candidates we register and how much we make from our examination, it is there in the public domain, so it is practically impossible to hide anything.
“As the chief executive, I have been given an important responsibility to run our indigenous assessment organisation and I am well guided by the ethics of prudent management of resources and zero tolerance for impunity,” he said.
