Bayelsa, Borno, Gombe Record Low Turnout As Candidates Write 2024 NCE Examination

The National Examinations Council, NECO has disclosed that a total of 70,603 candidates participated in the 2024 National Common Entrance Examination, NCEE conducted on Saturday.

Prof Dantani Wushishi, NECO Registrar disclosed this to newsmen while monitoring the exercise in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

The NECO boss, who visited the Model Secondary School, Maitama and Government Day Secondary School, Wuse 2 Abuja, added that the examination was conducted in 599 centres across the country.

Breaking down the number of candidates that participated in the exercise by gender, Wushishi said 33,335 males registered for the 2024 NCEE, while 37,268 females registered for the exercise.

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He, however, lamented that the 2024 registration was lower than that of the previous year, 2023 which had 34,064 males and 38,801 females, totalling 72,865.

Data released by the council indicated that Lagos State came tops with the highest number of candidates, with 17,751 while FCT came second with 10,209 candidates and Anambra in third place with 4,972 candidates.

Bayelsa, Borno and Gombe had the least number of candidates participating in the exercise, after registering only 133,138 and 174 candidates respectively.

“For the males and females, last year’s registration was higher than this year’s registration. This could be attributed to so many factors; economic factors are the most prevalent factor that could hinder this large registration,” he said.