The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has officially released the results of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, with female candidates outperforming their male counterparts in both English and Mathematics.
The long-awaited announcement, made on Wednesday, brings to an end weeks of anxious waiting for nearly two million candidates across Nigeria and parts of West Africa who sat the examination.
The council confirmed the development through its official X account (formerly Twitter), directing candidates to generate a result-checking PIN and access their results online.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut, disclosed that the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of those who sat the computer-based examination, had been withheld.
He said the affected results were withheld over alleged cases of examination malpractice and would remain under investigation until the council concluded its review.
WAEC said 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 secondary schools registered for the examination, which was conducted across Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea.
Of those registered, 1,950,726 candidates sat the examination. The council 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 per cent) are still being processed and will be released once the exercise is completed.
WAEC’s statistics show that 1,200,514 candidates, representing 61.54 per cent of candidates who sat the examination, obtained credits and above in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Meanwhile, 1,687,378 candidates (86.50 per cent) secured credits in at least five subjects, irrespective of whether English Language and Mathematics were included.
Despite the strong overall performance, the council noted a slight decline in the number of candidates achieving the benchmark of five credits including English and Mathematics, with the pass rate dropping by 1.42 percentage points compared with the 2025 examination.
WAEC also released a gender breakdown of successful candidates. Of the 1,200,514 candidates who obtained five credits including English and Mathematics:
– 641,631 candidates (32.89 per cent) were female
– 558,883 candidates (28.65 per cent) were male
Overall participation also showed female candidates slightly outnumbering their male counterparts, with 997,267 females (51.12 per cent) and 953,459 males (48.88 per cent) sitting the examination.
With the release of the results, thousands of candidates are expected to begin admission processing into tertiary institutions, while those whose results were withheld await the outcome of WAEC’s ongoing investigation into alleged examination malpractice.
