By Kwin Israel, The Sight News
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has released the results of the 2026 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) Internal, with 804,948 candidates, representing 58.67 per cent, obtaining five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics.
The results announced 63 days after the last paper was written were unveiled by the Registrar of NECO, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, at a press conference in Minna, Niger State, on Thursday.
Prof. Wushishi said 1,378,048 candidates registered for the examination, while 1,371,992 sat for it, in an exercise that ran from June 15 to July 23, 2026. He disclosed that 1,162,118 candidates, or 84.70 per cent, obtained five credits and above irrespective of their performance in English Language and Mathematics.
The Registrar also reported a sharp decline in examination malpractice, with 1,406 candidates implicated in various forms of malpractice in 2026, compared with 3,878 in 2025, a reduction of 64.74 per cent.
The Registrar thanked President Bola Tinubu for reappointing him for a second term as NECO Registrar, and the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, for his continued confidence in his leadership.
He also commended security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Department of State Services (DSS), for their vigilance and support during the examination, saying their presence helped reinforce discipline, deter wrongdoing and protect the integrity of the process.
He reassured stakeholders that NECO would remain committed to upholding the credibility of its examinations.
Giving a state-by-state breakdown, Prof. Wushishi said Kano emerged as the best-performing state, with 74,413 candidates scoring five credits and above including English and Mathematics, followed by Lagos with 72,496 and Oyo with 55,543. He said NECO centres in Saudi Arabia and Niger Republic recorded the weakest outcomes, with no candidates scoring five credits and above.
By geopolitical zone, the Southwest recorded the highest performance at 24.60 per cent of candidates obtaining five credits and above irrespective of English and Mathematics, followed by the Northwest with 22.10 per cent, North Central with 19.00 per cent, Northeast with 14.70 per cent, South-South with 10.53 per cent and Southeast with 9.07 per cent.
He also presented state and gender-level rankings based on candidates who obtained five credits and above, including Mathematics and English Language:
In North Central, Benue led with 3.82 per cent, followed by Nasarawa with 3.66 per cent and in Northeast, Adamawa led followed by Bauchi, Borno, Yobe and Gombe.
For Northwest, Kano led followed by Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara and Jigawa.
In the Southeast, Anambra topped with 2.92 per cent (male: 2.47 per cent, female: 3.82 per cent), followed by Enugu with 2.14 per cent (male: 1.79 per cent, female: 2.45 per cent), Ebonyi with 1.15 per cent and Abia with 0.57 per cent.
For South-South, Rivers led with 3.03 per cent (male: 2.85 per cent, female: 3.19 per cent), followed by Edo with 2.17 per cent (male: 2.06 per cent, female: 2.28 per cent), Delta with 1.84 per cent, Akwa Ibom with 1.61 per cent and Cross River with 1.30 per cent.
Prof. Wushishi said the full statistical tables accompanying the results provide a detailed breakdown of candidates’ performance by geopolitical zone, state and gender.
