The Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, informed Parliament that the Finance Ministry has released GH₵80 million to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
This announcement followed concerns raised by the Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi, Yusif Sulemana, regarding the government’s debt to WAEC.
Initially, WAEC had received only GH₵2.3 million out of the required GH₵95.83 million, prompting the council to request at least 50% of the total amount to conduct the examination and additional funds to process and release the results.
The BECE is scheduled to take place from July 8 to July 15, 2024, across all centres in the country. John Kapi, Head of Public Relations for WAEC, had previously expressed concerns that the examination might not proceed as planned if the funds were not released in time.
He noted that even though GH₵6 million had been processed through the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS), it had not yet been converted into actual cash.
However, Annoh-Dompreh assured Parliament that GH₵80 million had been released to WAEC. He confirmed that he had followed up on the matter and received confirmation from the Minister of State, Abena Osei Asare, that the funds had been released.
“You raised an issue about the release to WAEC for the conduct of exams and the respected ranking member gave you copies. So myself and the Chief Whip, we followed up and spoke to the Minister of State, Abena Osei Asare, she got back to the Ministry and confirmed that indeed, they have made a significant release. We are told an amount of 80 million has been released.”
