The National Examinations Council, NECO, has released the results of the 2026 Senior School Certificate Examination, SSCE, with 804,948 candidates securing at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
The figure represents 58.67 percent of the candidates who sat for the examination, marking a 2.64 percentage point decline from the 60.26 percent recorded in 2025. NECO Registrar, Professor Dantani Wushishi, announced the results on Thursday at a press conference in Minna, Niger State. According to Wushishi, 1,378,048 candidates registered for the 2026 examination, while 1,371,992 eventually sat for the exercise. The examination was conducted between June 15 and July 23, 2026, with candidates taking papers across Nigeria and selected centres outside the country.
Beyond the benchmark involving English and Mathematics, the council reported that 1,162,118 candidates, representing 84.70 percent, obtained at least five credits in their results, regardless of their performance in the two subjects. The latest results show that the proportion of candidates meeting the five credit requirement including English and Mathematics fell from the previous year. In 2025, 818,492 candidates, representing 60.26 percent, obtained five credits and above, including the two compulsory subjects. The 2026 figure is therefore 13,544 candidates lower than the previous year.
However, the examination recorded a substantial reduction in reported malpractice cases. Wushishi said 1,406 candidates were involved in examination malpractice in 2026, compared with 3,878 candidates recorded in 2025. This represents a 64.74 percent reduction in the number of candidates involved in malpractice cases. The registrar attributed the improvement to measures adopted by NECO to strengthen examination monitoring and enforcement.
He also acknowledged the role of security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, and the Department of State Services, DSS, in maintaining order during the examination. According to Wushishi, the agencies helped strengthen discipline, discourage wrongdoing and protect the credibility of the examination process. The registrar also thanked President Bola Tinubu for reappointing him for a second term and acknowledged the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, for his support. He assured candidates, parents, schools and other stakeholders that NECO would continue to uphold the integrity of its examinations.
The council said the results were released 63 days after the completion of the examination, following the conclusion of marking, verification and quality assurance processes. The 2026 results therefore present a mixed outcome, with the share of candidates securing the required credits in English and Mathematics declining, while reported examination malpractice cases fell significantly compared with 2025.
