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Kano State has emerged as the top-performing state in the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) results by number of candidates who obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
A total of 74,413 candidates in Kano met the benchmark, placing the state ahead of Lagos and Oyo in the national ranking.
Lagos State ranked second with 72,496 candidates securing at least five credits, including English and Mathematics, while Oyo State came third with 55,543 candidates.
The latest result means Kano has topped the NECO performance chart by this measure for two consecutive years, having also recorded the highest number of candidates with five credits, including the two compulsory subjects, in 2025.
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Yusuf links result to investment
Reacting to the results, Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf attributed the performance to investments made by the state government in the education sector.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Sanusi Bature, the governor commended students, teachers, parents and other education stakeholders for the outcome.
“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,” Yusuf said.
The governor said his administration would continue to prioritise education through funding, improvements to learning facilities, recruitment and training of teachers, scholarships and financial support for students.
According to the state government, more than N4.4 billion was spent in 2026 to sponsor candidates for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), with particular attention given to students from low-income households.
The government said the intervention was intended to reduce financial barriers that could prevent eligible students from sitting for the examination.
Kano increases education spending
The state government has also increased its budgetary allocation to education over the past three years.
Education accounted for about 29.95% of Kano State’s budget in 2024, according to figures provided by the government.
In 2025, the allocation rose to N168.35 billion, representing about 31% of the state’s budget for the year.
For 2026, Kano allocated N405.35 billion to education, equivalent to approximately 27.4% of its N1.479 trillion budget. This represents an increase of about N237 billion, or 140.8%, compared with the amount allocated in 2025.
Kano faces wider education challenges
Kano State has increased spending and interventions in its education sector in recent years, including covering examination fees for students from low-income households.
In May 2025, Nairametrics reported that the Kano State Government approved N3 billion to pay examination fees for 141,745 indigent public school students sitting for NECO, NABTEB and SSCE examinations.
The beneficiaries were drawn from schools under the Kano Educational Resource Department (KERD), Science and Technical Schools Board (STSB), and the Agency for Integrated Education Development (AIED). Students were required to have obtained at least five credits in the 2024 Senior Secondary Qualifying Examination to qualify for the intervention.
However, Kano continues to face significant challenges at the foundational education level.
In January 2025, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that only 9.6% of primary school pupils in Kano demonstrated reading proficiency, while 11.2% had basic numeracy skills.
UNICEF’s Kano Field Office also estimated that nearly one million children in the state were out of school at the time, highlighting the gap between improvements recorded among senior secondary school candidates and broader learning outcomes at the primary level.
More recently, Kano ranked first in an SBM Intelligence report on the best states to raise a family in Nigeria. The May 2026 report assessed eight states across 15 indicators, including education, healthcare, income, electricity, childcare, safety and housing affordability.
