WAEC: 61.54% of Candidates Passed 2026 WASSCE With Five Credits, Results of Indebted States Withheld
By Our Reporter
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that 61.54 per cent of candidates who sat the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
The council also disclosed that it withheld the results of candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to WAEC until the outstanding payments are settled.
The Head of the Nigeria National Office of WAEC, Amos Dangut, announced the results on Wednesday during a press briefing at the council’s headquarters in Yaba, Lagos.
According to Dangut, 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 schools registered for the examination, while 1,950,726 candidates eventually sat for the Computer-Based WASSCE conducted between April 24 and June 19, 2026.
He revealed that 1,834,695 candidates, representing 94.05 per cent of those who wrote the examination, had their results fully processed and released. However, the results of 116,031 candidates, representing 5.95 per cent, were still being processed due to unresolved issues.
Dangut assured candidates that efforts were ongoing to complete the processing and release the outstanding results within a few days.
He added that candidates sponsored by state governments yet to pay their financial obligations to WAEC would not be able to access their results until the debts were cleared.
“The results of candidates who are sponsored by states indebted to the Council will not be released now until payment is made. We appeal to the concerned to do so to enable the affected schools and candidates to access their results,” he said.
Candidates whose results have been released and whose sponsoring states are not indebted can access their results on WAEC’s online portal within 12 hours of the announcement and apply for their digital certificates, which will be available within 48 hours.
On candidates’ performance, Dangut disclosed that 1,200,514 candidates, representing 61.54 per cent of the total candidates, secured five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics. He noted that the figure represents a 1.42 percentage-point decline compared with the 2025 examination.
A gender breakdown showed that 558,883 successful candidates (28.65 per cent) were male, while 641,631 (32.89 per cent) were female.
The WAEC boss also disclosed that the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of the total candidature, had been withheld over alleged involvement in examination malpractice.
He said the cases were undergoing investigation and would be reviewed by the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), which would determine the appropriate sanctions where necessary.
Dangut added that WAEC, in collaboration with security agencies, arrested several individuals involved in examination malpractice, including supervisors and invigilators accused of aiding candidates.
He said the affected officials would face disciplinary measures through their respective state Ministries of Education, while candidates found culpable would also be sanctioned in line with the council’s regulations.
