The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has withheld the results of 167,486 candidates who sat the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates over alleged involvement in examination malpractice.

The withheld results represent 8.59 per cent of the 1,950,726 candidates who wrote the examination, a slight improvement from the 9.7 per cent recorded in the 2025 WASSCE.

The announcement was made on Wednesday in Lagos by the Head of the WAEC National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, while officially releasing the results of the 2026 examination.

According to Dangut, the council withheld the results over various forms of examination misconduct, including the increasing use of mobile phones by candidates inside examination halls despite an existing ban, as well as organised cheating allegedly facilitated 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 to cheat had been arrested and would be sanctioned through the appropriate state ministries of education.

WAEC said 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 eventually sat for the papers.

Of those who wrote the examination, 1,200,514 candidates, representing 61.54 per cent, obtained credit passes in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

The council also said 1,687,378 candidates, representing 86.50 per cent, secured credits in at least five subjects, with or without English Language and Mathematics.

Despite the overall performance, WAEC noted that the percentage of candidates who obtained five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, declined by 1.42 percentage points compared to the 2025 examination.

The examination body further disclosed that 1,834,695 candidates, representing 94.05 per cent of those who sat the examination, had their results fully processed and released.

However, the results of another 116,031 candidates, representing 5.95 per cent, are still being processed.

On gender distribution, WAEC said 997,267 females, representing 51.12 per cent, participated in the examination, while 953,459 males accounted for 48.88 per cent of the candidates.

The council also said 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.

Dangut said the 2026 examination was the second edition of the Computer-Based WASSCE for school candidates following the introduction of the format by the council.

He explained that WAEC introduced several innovations during the examination, including the Digital Examiner Mark System to speed up result processing, serialisation of question papers to reduce examination malpractice, and a new portal that enables candidates to generate e-PINs directly to check their results.

According to him, the examination was conducted between April 24 and June 19, 2026, while 102,708 examiners participated in the marking exercise across 88 marking centres.

Dangut, who described the briefing as his third and final appearance as Head of the WAEC National Office in Nigeria, also warned that candidates sponsored by state governments owing the council outstanding fees would not have their results released until the debts were settled.

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