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 students securing at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in Lagos by the Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, who disclosed that the performance represents 61.54 per cent of candidates who sat the examination. Although the pass rate remains significant, it reflects a 1.42 percentage-point decline compared to the 2025 results.
According to WAEC, 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 schools across Nigeria, Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea registered for the examination, while 1,950,726 eventually took part.
The council reported that: 1,200,514 candidates (61.54%) obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, 1,687,378 candidates (86.50%) earned five credits or more, with or without English and Mathematics.
WAEC’s statistics showed that female candidates slightly outnumbered their male counterparts both in participation and performance. Of the candidates who obtained the benchmark of five credits including English and Mathematics: 558,883 (28.65%) were male, 641,631 (32.89%) were female.
Overall, 953,459 males (48.88%) and 997,267 females (51.12%) sat for the examination.
Dr. Dangut disclosed that 1,834,695 candidates, representing 94.05 per cent, have had their results fully processed and released. However, the results of 116,031 candidates (5.95%) remain under processing.
WAEC also confirmed that 1,213 candidates with special needs registered for the examination, including visually impaired, hearing-impaired, physically challenged and other special-needs candidates, with necessary accommodations provided during the examination.
The examination body withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent, over alleged involvement in examination malpractice.
Although the figure is lower than the 9.7 per cent recorded in 2025, WAEC expressed concern over the continued use of mobile phones in examination halls and organised cheating in some schools. Dr. Dangut revealed that some supervisors and invigilators implicated in malpractice have already been identified and will face disciplinary action through the relevant State Ministries of Education.
The 2026 examination marked the second edition of WAEC’s Computer-Based WASSCE for school candidates.
Dr. Dangut highlighted several technological improvements introduced by the council, including the Digital Examiner Mark System (DEMS) to speed up result processing, serialised question papers to curb examination malpractice and a new online platform that enables candidates to generate e-PINs directly for result checking. He noted that this would be his third and final media briefing as Head of WAEC Nigeria.
Candidates can check their results online within 12 hours through WAEC’s official result portal. The council also announced that digital certificates will be available for application 48 hours after candidates access their results online, while physical certificates will be ready within 90 days.
Registration for the 2026 WASSCE for Private Candidates (Second Series) is currently ongoing at ₦37,500, with walk-in registration also available. WAEC further disclosed that officially compiled past questions and answers are now available for purchase at ₦5,200 per subject combination.
The examination was conducted between April 24 and June 19, 2026, with 102,708 examiners participating in the marking exercise across 88 marking centres. Meanwhile, WAEC stated that results of candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to the council will remain withheld until the outstanding payments are settled.
