The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the results of the 2026 Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CB-WASSCE) for school candidates, with 1,200,514 candidates representing 61.54 per cent recording credit passes in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Announcing the results in Lagos, the Head of Nigeria National Office (HNO), Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, said the performance marked a 1.42 percentage-point decline compared with the 2025 results.
A total of 1,950,726 candidates sat the examination out of the 1,959,668 registered candidates from 24,207 schools across Nigeria and selected Nigerian curriculum schools in Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea.
WAEC’s analysis showed that 1,687,378 candidates (86.50 per cent) obtained credit passes in at least five subjects, with or without English Language and Mathematics.
The council disclosed that 1,834,695 candidates (94.05 per cent) have received their fully processed results, while the results of 116,031 candidates (5.95 per cent) are still being finalised due to issues under review.
Dangut assured affected candidates that the outstanding results would be released once the processes are completed.
Meanwhile, WAEC withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of those who wrote the examination, over alleged involvement in examination malpractice.
The figure represents an improvement from the 9.7 per cent recorded in 2025, with WAEC attributing the reduction to stronger measures aimed at protecting examination integrity.
Dangut said innovations such as computer-based examinations, serialised question papers and the Digital Examiner Marking System (DEMS) have improved monitoring, reduced malpractice opportunities and accelerated result processing.
“The council has consistently devised means of combating examination malpractice.
”The adoption of computer-based examinations and other innovations has significantly strengthened the integrity of the examination process,” he stated.
The WAEC Nigeria boss described the transition to computer-based examinations as a major milestone, noting that the council had become the first examining body in Africa and among the earliest globally to conduct achievement tests using the digital format.
He added that candidates were allowed, for the second consecutive year, to choose between computer-based testing and the traditional paper examination format.
However, Dangut acknowledged challenges encountered during the exercise, including logistics difficulties, delayed school registrations, rising operational costs caused by inflation and the activities of fraudulent websites selling fake examination materials.
He warned students and parents against falling victim to online platforms spreading fake questions and misleading information in WAEC’s name.
“The council, working with security agencies, arrested some of the perpetrators, while supervisors and invigilators found aiding examination malpractice would face sanctions through the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NRC) and relevant state ministries of education,” he said.
WAEC also revealed that 1,213 candidates with special needs participated in the examination, including visually impaired, hearing-impaired and physically challenged students, whose results were processed alongside others.
To improve access to results, the council announced that it has stopped issuing printed smart identity cards containing result-checking PINs.
Candidates can now generate their result-checking e-PINs digitally using their National Identification Number (NIN), while digital certificates will be available within 48 hours of result release. Physical certificates, WAEC said, will be ready within 90 days.
Dangut urged governments and school owners to invest in computer laboratories, reliable electricity and digital learning infrastructure to support the future of computer-based assessments.
He also appealed to candidates from states owing WAEC to encourage their governments to clear outstanding debts to prevent delays in releasing affected results.
