WAEC Releases 2026 Results; 1.2 Million Meet University Admission Benchmark

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, the minimum requirement for admission into most Nigerian tertiary institutions.

Announcing the results in Lagos on Wednesday, the Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, said the figure represents 61.54 per cent of the 1,950,726 candidates who sat the examination, reflecting a 1.42 percentage-point decline from the 2025 performance.

According to WAEC, 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 schools registered for the examination, which was conducted across Nigeria, Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea between April 24 and June 19, 2026.

The council also disclosed that 1,687,378 candidates (86.50 per cent) obtained at least five credits, with or without English Language and Mathematics.

On result processing, Dr. Dangut said 1,834,695 candidates (94.05 per cent) have had their results fully processed and released, while 116,031 candidates (5.95 per cent) are still being processed.

WAEC withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of those who sat the examination, over alleged examination malpractice, a reduction from the 9.7 per cent recorded in 2025.

“The increasing use of cell phones in the examination hall, in spite of the existing ban, and organized cheating in some schools, are other nagging issues,” Dr. Dangut said.

He added that supervisors and invigilators found aiding examination malpractice have been apprehended and would be sanctioned through the relevant State Ministries of Education.

Highlighting innovations introduced for the examination, WAEC said it deployed the Digital Examiner Mark System (DEMS) to improve the speed of marking, serialised question papers to curb malpractice, and introduced a new portal that enables candidates to generate their own e-PINs to check results.

The council further announced that candidates can apply for their digital certificates 48 hours after checking their results online, while physical certificates will be available within 90 days.

WAEC also noted that results of candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to the council will remain withheld until the outstanding debts are settled.