Kwara denies plan to hand over schools to investment company

KWARA State has again denied reports of government’s plan to transfer the management of state-owned tertiary institutions to Harmony Holdings Limited, a fully owned holding company.

Besides, It also clarified that the state is not among those owing the West African Examination Council (WEAC) examination fees.

According to a statement by Dr. Muyideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, the state government said Harmony Holdings Limited was established to manage the state government’s dormant assets in fully or partly owned companies and therefore doesn’t have the mandate to take over any state-owned tertiary institution.

According to Akorede, all government-owned tertiary institutions in the state were established by law and could not be handed over to Harmony Holdings Limited or any other body without recourse to the state house of assembly and the people of Kwara State through a public hearing.

The state government therefore called on the public to ignore the rumour, which it said was sponsored by those seeking to diminish the successes achieved by Harmony Holdings Limited since its inception. Continuing, the government said Harmony Holdings has turned around the fortunes of companies under its management and had since started paying dividend to the state government, which owns the company 100 per cent.

The state government also clarified that the state was not among the 19 states owing N4b in unpaid fees to the examination body, WAEC.

It said final year Senior Secondary School students in the state had for many years sat for National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations instead of WEAC.

In addition, the state government said it had recently paid a sum of N78 million in examination fees to NECO and assured students and parents in the state that the examination body on account of non-payment of fees would not withhold results.