It is now mandatory for candidates who want to sit for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC)- organised exams in Nigeria from next year, to have been enrolled for a National Identification Number (NIN) with the National Identification Management Commission (NIMC).
WAEC’s head of national office in Nigeria, Mr Patrick Areghan, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Lagos, while addressing newsmen on the organisation’s preparedness towards the forthcoming 2021 schools-based West African Senior School Certificate Examination scheduled to commence across Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria from August 16.
Areghan stated that WAEC Nigeria, as a law-abiding organisation working in public interests, had no option than to key into Nigerian government directive for every resident to enrol for NIN, which is a personalised number to every enrollee.
WAEC he said, would have even started making the policy a mandatory requirement with this year’s exams but pleaded with the Federal Ministry of Education for one more year to enable potential candidates of its various exams who are yet to register with NIN to do so in the interval.
Areghan said WAEC believes that the policy is achievable with candidates sitting for its exams just as it is with those sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) being conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
He disclosed that a total of 1,573,789 candidates, comprising 792,620 males and 781,169 females are expected to sit for the exam across 19,425 recognised secondary schools, comprising 8.052 public and 11,373 private schools nationwide.
The WAEC Nigeria Office head said the exam body was well aware of the insecurity situation particularly in some states in the northern part of the country and the raging third wave of COVID-19 and had collaborated with relevant government agencies including security operatives and schools as partners to help where necessary and as applicable.
