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 participated in the examination, a decline from the 9.7 per cent recorded in 2025.
Announcing the release of the results in Lagos on Wednesday, Head of the WAEC Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, attributed the withheld results to various forms of examination malpractice, including the increasing use of mobile phones in examination halls 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,” Dangut said.
He disclosed 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.
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, while 1,950,726 candidates eventually sat for the papers.
WAEC said 1,200,514 candidates, representing 61.54 per cent, obtained credits in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Another 1,687,378 candidates, or 86.50 per cent, secured credits in at least five subjects, with or without English Language and Mathematics.
The council noted that the percentage of candidates who obtained five credits, including English and Mathematics, fell by 1.42 percentage points compared with the 2025 examination.
Of the candidates who earned five credits, including English and Mathematics, 641,631 were female, while 558,883 were male.
Overall, female candidates accounted for 51.12 per cent of participants, while males represented 48.88 per cent.
WAEC also announced that 1,834,695 candidates had their results fully processed and released, while the results of 116,031 candidates remained under processing.
The examination body further disclosed that 1,213 candidates with special needs participated in the examination, including visually impaired, hearing-impaired, physically challenged and mentally challenged candidates.
Dangut said the 2026 WASSCE marked the second edition of the computer-based examination for school candidates, with several innovations introduced to improve efficiency and reduce malpractice.
The innovations include the Digital Examiner Mark System, serialisation of question papers to curb cheating and a new online platform 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 involved in marking across 88 centres.
Dangut also stated that candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to WAEC would not have their results released until the outstanding payments were settled.
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