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 percent of the 1,950,726 candidates who sat for the examination. He noted that the figure reflects a 1.42 percent decline compared to the 2025 results.
A total of 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 schools across Nigeria, Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea registered for the examination.
According to WAEC, 1,687,378 candidates (86.50 percent) obtained credits in at least five subjects, regardless of whether they passed English Language and Mathematics.
The council also disclosed that 1,834,695 candidates (94.05 percent) have had their results fully processed and released, while 116,031 results (5.95 percent) are still being processed.
WAEC withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 percent, over alleged examination malpractice. Dr. Dangut attributed many of the cases to the continued use of mobile phones in examination halls and organised cheating in some schools, adding that supervisors and invigilators found culpable would face appropriate sanctions.
The examination body further revealed that 1,213 candidates with special needs participated in the examination, including visually impaired, hearing-impaired and physically challenged candidates.
Dr. Dangut highlighted several innovations introduced during the 2026 examination, including the continued use of the computer-based testing format, the Digital Examiner Mark System (DEMS), serialised question papers to curb malpractice, and a new online portal for generating result-checking e-PINs.
WAEC advised candidates that digital certificates can be accessed 48 hours after checking their results online, while printed certificates will be available within 90 days.
The 2026 WASSCE for school candidates was conducted between April 24 and June 19, with 102,708 examiners participating in the marking exercise across 88 centres.
