The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has refuted claims that it intends to move its headquarters from Ghana to Nigeria.
Some media reports had indicated that the Ghanaian government’s debt to WAEC had significantly impacted operations, leading to discussions about a possible relocation.
However, the Head of Public Relations at WAEC, John Kapi, has stated that no such decision has been made.
“There hasn’t been any discussion in this direction. So the law that established WAEC indicates that the headquarters of the WAEC will be situated here in Accra.
“Ever since there has not been any change to that. So, I guess that we cannot confirm that, we have not had any such discussions and there are no plans as such,” he said.
This comes after the council appealed for the urgent payment of GH¢110.46 million to facilitate the smooth completion of post-examination processes towards the release of the 2024 WASSCE results.
The amount represents the balance of the GH¢186.44 million that was required to conduct the examination, including marking and release of the results.
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So far, the government has paid GH¢75,976,815.50 out of the total GH¢186,437,617.50
Cumulatively, the government owes WAEC GH¢150.93 million following a previous debt of GH¢40.46 million, being arrears for the conduct of the 2022 and 2023 versions of the WASSCE.
In 2022, a GH¢9.97 million debt remained outstanding, while GH¢30.49 million arrears were reflected in the books in 2023.
Per the WAEC schedule, the marking of WASSCE scripts is expected to be completed by Friday, November 29, 2024.
However, the supervisors and invigilators have not yet been paid, raising suspicion that the examiners might hold on to the scripts until they are paid.
“We want to avoid the situation where examiners would keep our scripts because they’re not sure when they will be paid for their services. We also want to ensure that we do not truncate the academic calendar of the universities,” John Kapi said.