Maneb goes digital, backs the system to curb fraud

The Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB) has stopped the physical payments of examination fees and paper registration of candidates and instead, the board has rolled out Electronic Registration.

The Board made the announcement on Wednesday in Lilongwe where they launched the system and they have disclosed that the 2023 registration has been opened and it will run up to December 16.

Malawi National Examination Board Executive Director, Professor Dorothy Nampota said the system will promote transparency as it will limit the opportunity from inflating examination costs.

According to Nampota, the plan to go technology in the payment and registration was conceived after noting various challenges such as fraud.

She added that the Board had various gaps and errors in the payment and registration as it was taking a big process for the it to reach to the Board.

“Preciously, registration was done manually first at school level before being transferred into Computer at district level then to [MANEB]. Through this, we noted number of gaps, there were some errors in the database and also we could have photo mismatch because photos were given manually and sometimes they could get lost. We are also addressing issues of Examination fees. We had some school administrators who could embezzle funds and that caused problems to us,” said Nampota.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Monica Ching’anamuno said the newly launched system have an advantage of transparency as previously some students could pay examination fees but some school administrators could not transfer the fees to the Board.

“We as the ministry of Education, we are committed to supporting the education sectors’ endeavour to go digital in its operations in order to achieve excellence and effectiveness in service delivery,” said Ching’anamuno.

The newly launched system which is applicable to PSLC, JCE, and MSCE allows the candidates to register online and pay fees directly to Malawi National Examination Board through TNM Mpamba, Airtel Money, National Bank Mo626, NBS Essy Mobile, FDH525, Standard Bank and First Capital Bank.