The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the results of the 2026 Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates, with 1,200,514 candidates obtaining at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
Announcing the results in Lagos on Wednesday, the Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, said the successful candidates represent 61.54 per cent of the 1,950,726 candidates who sat the examination. He noted that the figure is 1.42 percentage points lower than the performance recorded in 2025.
According to WAEC, a total of 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 schools across Nigeria, the Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea registered for the examination, while 1,950,726 eventually sat for the tests.
The Council also disclosed that 1,687,378 candidates, representing 86.50 per cent, obtained credits and above in at least five subjects, with or without English Language and Mathematics.
Of the candidates who achieved the benchmark of five credits, including English and Mathematics, 558,883 (28.65 per cent) were male, while 641,631 (32.89 per cent) were female. Overall, 953,459 males and 997,267 females participated in the examination.
Dr. Dangut said 1,834,695 candidates, representing 94.05 per cent, have had their results fully processed and released, while the results of 116,031 candidates, representing 5.95 per cent, are still being processed.
The examination body also revealed that 1,213 candidates with special needs registered for the examination. They include 137 visually impaired candidates, 491 with hearing impairment, 55 who are spastic or mentally challenged, and 41 physically challenged candidates.
On examination malpractice, WAEC withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of those who sat the examination, over alleged involvement in various forms of malpractice. The Council noted that the figure represents a 1.11 percentage-point decline from the 9.70 per cent recorded in 2025.
Dr. Dangut attributed many of the malpractice cases to the persistent use of mobile phones in examination halls despite existing bans, as well as organised cheating in some schools. He added that supervisors and invigilators found aiding malpractice have been identified and will face disciplinary action through the relevant State Ministries of Education.
Highlighting improvements introduced during the examination, the WAEC boss said the 2026 diet marked the second Computer-Based WASSCE for school candidates and featured innovations such as the Digital Examiner Marking System (DEMS), serialisation of question papers to curb malpractice, and a new online platform that allows candidates to generate e-PINs for result checking.
Candidates can check their results online within 12 hours through the WAEC result-checking portal, while digital certificates will be available for application 48 hours after results are accessed. Hard copies of certificates are expected to be ready within 90 days.
Dr. Dangut also disclosed that results of candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to WAEC will remain withheld until the outstanding payments are settled.
