KANO, Nigeria – Kano State has emerged as the leading state across the federation in the 2026 Senior School Certificate Examination conducted by the National Examinations Council, recording the highest absolute number of candidates nationwide who secured a minimum of five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, educational correspondents reported from Kano on Sunday afternoon, September 27, 2026.
According to certified performance data published by the examination body, a total of 74,413 candidates from Kano State satisfied the mandatory five-credit benchmark, surpassing Lagos State, which placed second with 72,496 successful candidates, and Oyo State, which finished third with 55,543 candidates.
Okay News reports that the result marks the second consecutive year that Kano has topped the national NECO performance chart by volume of successful candidates, having previously led the country in the 2025 examination cycle.
Reacting to the performance in an official dispatch issued in Kano on Saturday, the Director-General of Media and Publicity at Government House Kano, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, conveyed Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s commendation to the students, instructional personnel, parents, and community education managers who contributed to the milestone.
“Kano has maintained the first position in NECO twice in a row, making the state the leading SSCE performer for two consecutive years, 2025 and 2026 respectively,” Governor Yusuf stated in his review of the examination returns. “This back-to-back performance demonstrates that the sustained investments and structural reforms implemented by our administration across the school system are delivering measurable academic dividends.”
The Governor reiterated the determination of his administration to institutionalize educational advancement as the cornerstone of human capital development through sustained budget priority, aggressive rehabilitation of dilapidated school infrastructure, expanded teacher recruitment, and targeted scholarships for indigent youth.
State officials disclosed that the government deployed more than ₦4.4 billion in 2026 to sponsor the SSCE registration fees for thousands of public school students, placing emphasis on candidates from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to prevent household financial hardship from terminating their academic pursuits.
The intervention forms part of a sustained fiscal expansion in the social sector, with budgetary allocations to education progressively rising since 2024, when the sector absorbed 29.95 percent of the state budget before increasing to ₦168.35 billion, or approximately 31 percent, in 2025.
In the 2026 fiscal appropriations, the Kano State Government allocated ₦405.35 billion to education, representing about 27.4 percent of the state’s total ₦1.479 trillion spending framework and reflecting a ₦237 billion expansion compared to the preceding fiscal year.
Despite the remarkable strides recorded at the senior secondary exit tier, education sector analysts observed that significant structural bottlenecks persist at the foundational primary level across the state.
Data published in 2025 by the United Nations Children’s Fund indicated that only 9.6 percent of primary school pupils in Kano demonstrated foundational reading comprehension, while 11.2 percent possessed basic numeracy proficiencies, alongside a substantial out-of-school population that authorities are working to integrate through basic education drives.
Nevertheless, the state’s comprehensive public welfare approach was highlighted in a comparative research report by SBM Intelligence released in May 2026, which ranked Kano as the top state in Nigeria to raise a family based on indicators covering educational access, healthcare availability, relative living costs, childcare support, and personal security.
