The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has withheld the results of 167,486 candidates who sat the 2026 Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates over alleged examination malpractice.
The withheld results represent 8.59 per cent of the 1,950,726 candidates who wrote the examination, marking a slight improvement from the 9.7 per cent recorded in 2025.
The Head of the WAEC Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut, announced the release of the results on Wednesday in Lagos.
According to Dangut, the affected results were withheld over various forms of examination malpractice, including the increasing use of mobile phones in examination halls despite an existing ban and organised cheating in some schools.
“The increasing use of cell phones in the examination hall, in spite of the existing ban, and organised cheating in some schools, are other nagging issues,” he said.
He added that some supervisors and invigilators caught aiding candidates in examination malpractice had been arrested and would face disciplinary action through the appropriate state ministries of education.
Performance
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 candidates eventually sat for the papers.
Of those who wrote the examination, 1,200,514 candidates, representing 61.54 per cent, obtained credits and above in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
In addition, 1,687,378 candidates, representing 86.50 per cent, secured credits in a minimum of five subjects, with or without English Language and Mathematics.
WAEC noted that the proportion of candidates who obtained five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, declined by 1.42 percentage points compared with the 2025 examination.
Among the 1.2 million candidates who earned the benchmark five credits, including English and Mathematics, 641,631, representing 32.89 per cent of all candidates, were female.
Overall, 997,267 females (51.12 per cent) and 953,459 males (48.88 per cent) participated in the examination.
The council said 1,834,695 candidates, representing 94.05 per cent, had their results fully processed and released, while the results of 116,031 candidates (5.95 per cent) were still being processed.
WAEC also disclosed that 1,213 candidates with special needs participated in the examination. They included 137 visually impaired candidates, 491 candidates with hearing impairment, 55 spastic and mentally challenged candidates, and 41 physically challenged candidates.
The 2026 examination was the second edition of the Computer-Based WASSCE for School Candidates following the introduction of the format by the council.
Dangut said WAEC introduced several innovations during the examination, including the Digital Examiner Marking System to speed up result processing, the serialisation of question papers to curb malpractice, and a new portal that enables candidates to generate e-PINs directly to check their results.
The examination was conducted between April 24 and June 19, 2026, with 102,708 examiners participating in the marking exercise across 88 centres.
Dangut, who described the briefing as his third and final as Head of the WAEC Nigeria National Office, also disclosed that candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to the council would not have their results released until the outstanding payments were settled.
