WAEC justifies #1.8m demand from an NGO for data processing

The West African Examination Council (WAEC), Nigeria, on Thursday admitted it demanded N1.85 million naira from a non-governmental organisation, Edubox, as processing fee for information requested by Edubox.
The non-governmental organisation had requested the examination body to furnish it with names of the best candidates in the 2015 May/June examination in each state of the country to enable the organisation to offer prizes and awards to them.
"It is the aim of the organisation to reward these students with the purpose of inspiring the younger generation," the letter signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation, Mr Sanusi Tosin, noted.

In response, however, WAEC had, in a letter signed by Dr O. F. Dacosta, Officer-in-Charge of Test Administration, informed Edubox that the "cost of processing the data is one million, eight hundred and fifty thousand (N1, 850, 000)."
"Kindly draw a bank draft in this sum in favour of West African Examination Council to enable us to process your request," the letter said.
Sanusi had thereafter, reportedly complained that WAEC's demand had made it difficult for his organisation to proceed with its plan. When finally contacted about this, the Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, Mr Demianus Ojijeogu, said on Thursday that it was "standard practice." He added that WAEC was unable to grant waivers to Edubox because Edubox was not a registered NGO."It's been standard WAEC practice to charge a fee for the production of such data for individuals or organisations that require them," he said. "
The Council, however, grants waivers to non-profit and or non-governmental organisations for altruistic purposes."It's a fact that Edubox, as can be seen from their letter, did not request for the said data as a registered NGO with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and may have requested the data for intentions that are far from encouraging scholarship and therefore, could not have been granted a waiver."Ojijeogu said WAEC would continue to champion the need to reward academic excellence.