Mr John K. Kapi, the Head of Public Affairs, WAEC, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that candidates unable to wait for their results to be sent to their various schools opted to purchase the scratch cards to check online.
"It is certainly an option that students certainly have, but we do not compel all of them to purchase these scratch cards to check their results online," he said in Accra.

Mr Kapi was reacting to the call by CUTS International, a public policy and consumer advocacy think tank, on the Ministry of Education to compel WAEC to stop charging candidates fees to access their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results online.

CUTS International holds that the practice by WAEC was not only unnecessary but bordered on extortion.
It said demanding fees from candidates before allowing them to access their results was "exploitative and unjustified." The scratch cards were sold at GHS 15 and GHS25 for BECE and WASSCE candidates, respectively.

The think tank cited exams bodies in many parts of the world where no student was charged before accessing their exam results, mentioning South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Zambia as examples.

Mr Kapi, however, noted that apart from Ghana, "Nigeria also accesses results online while the students wait for the results to be taken to their schools."

"And in Ghana scratch cards are sold for GHC15 each and same are available at the various offices across the regions and post offices across the country."
He described as "misinformation" CUTS International's assertion that the sale of cards amounted to extortion.

"I totally disagree, that assertion is misleading and misinforming the public. When you come into the WAEC system nobody charges for the scratch card. I said earlier on if anybody concludes that we are extorting money, that is disingenuous and misleading," Mr Kapi said.

"We do not extort this money; the candidates can choose to access the results online or wait till the statements of results are sent to their institutions."

Mr Kapi said the scratch cards were not part of the package the Council offered as part of its agreement with the Government, adding: "As you know, government absorbs exams fees of candidates."

"To absorb this in the package we need to have an agreement with the Government and ascertain if they are willing to absorb this."