INTRODUCTION

The West African Examinations Council, a non-profit-making organization, with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana, was established in 1952 after the Governments of Ghana (then Gold Coast), Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia enacted the West African Examinations Council Ordinances in 1951. Liberia became the fifth member of the Council in 1974.

The enactment of the Ordinances was based on the Jeffrey Report, which strongly supported the proposal for the setting up of a regional examining board to harmonise and standardise pre-university assessment procedures in the then British West Africa.

The Main Objectives of the Council are:

1.	To determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries;
2.	to conduct the examinations; and
3.	to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authories internationally.

Convention Establishing the Council

In March 1982, a new legal framework for the operations of the Council was adopted. After over five years of preparatory work, the Convention establishing The West African Examinations Council was signed at an impressive ceremony coinciding with the Council’s 30th Anniversary celebrations and the Annual Council Meeting in Monrovia. The Convention, subsequently ratified by the member countries, came into force on August 24, 1984, with the depositing of the instruments of ratification of all members countries with the Government of Ghana. The Convention provides uniform legal backing to the operations of the Council in all the member countries and gives the Council legal personality as an international body. To take care of recent developments in the member countries, a process to revise the Convention was initiated at the turn of the century, and the Revised Convention was signed in June 2003.