By Adesina Wahab
The federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, has given approval for the National Examinations Council, NECO and the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, to increase the registration fee for their Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, SSCE, to N50,000 per candidate beginning from 2027.
The examinations are conducted for internal candidates who are finishing their Senior Secondary School education. WAEC just finished this year’s exam a few weeks ago, while NECO’s is ongoing.
The increase would see NECO SSCE internal examination fee jump from N30,000 per candidate to N50,000, while WAEC’s would jump to N50,000 from N27,000.
A memo approving the new rate, dated June 18th, 2026, was signed by the Director of Senior Secondary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Adeniji Ibrahim, on behalf of the Minister of Education.
The memo, sighted by Vanguard Newspaper, and directed to the Registrar, NECO, read:
“Re: Upward review of registration fees for examinations conducted by NECO
The West African Examinations Council has requested an upward review of the examination fees for the Senior School Certificate Examination for school candidates, with effect from 2027.
“You may recall that at a meeting of examination bodies held with the Honourable Minister of Education on 31st March, 2026, where the need for upward review of examination fee was discussed, the Honourable Minister of Education directed that the West African Examinations Council and the National Examinations Council should adopt a uniform fee for the conduct of WAEC and NECO SSCE.
“Consequently, I am directed to convey the Honourable Minister of Education’s approval of the sum of Fifty Thousand Naira (N50,000) only, as the new examination fee for candidates with effect from NECO SSCE internal 2027.
“You are to bring the content of this letter to all stakeholders.
Please accept the Honourable Minister’s warm regards.”
Meanwhile, there are indications that the development would further increase the debts owed the examination bodies by some state governments paying the exam fees of candidates in their state,
Also, some parents are expressing the fear that many candidates may not be able to register for the exams in states where the government is not paying the fees.
In Lagos State, for instance, the state government pays the fee for candidates writing WAEC SSCE, and parents who can afford it pay the NECO fee for their children.
