The National Examinations Council, NECO, on Wednesday, announced the release of Results of the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE.

A statement by Azeez Sani, Ag. Director, Information and Public Relations of NECO, noted that one hundred and seventy nine thousand, two hundred and one, 179,201, candidates registered for the examination in 12 subjects.

Although the statement did not reveal the performance of the candidates, it indicated that the examination commenced on 12th May, 2025, and was successfully concluded on 23rd May, 2025.

Azeez said the results of the examination was released following the successful conclusion of the 2025 BECE Award Committee Meeting held at the Council’s Headquarters in Minna.

He explained that during the meeting, the chairperson of the Award Committee, Dr Folake Olatunji David, Director, Basic Education, Federal Ministry of Education expressed satisfaction with the processes leading to the successful release of the results.

The NECO spokesman also indicated that the Award committee meeting was attended by some Secondary School Principals from across the Country as well as NECO Management.

He said the Award Committee has approved the Date and Timetable for the 2025 BECE Re-sit examination.

According to NECO, “The Re-sit examination is scheduled to hold on 23rd and 24th July, 2025 for Mathematics and English Studies”

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has “suspected” foul play in the results of Chinedu Okeke, the best candidate in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar, at the 2025 policy meeting of the board on Tuesday in Abuja, announced that Okeke, an indigene of Anambra, emerged the best candidate with 375 score, in the examinations.

Oloyede, however, said that the board made some discoveries regarding Okeke, who applied for Mechanical Engineering at the University of Lagos.

Oloyede explained that data from JAMB revealed that Okeke was admitted a year ago, in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), in the School of Medicine.

He said that JAMB wrote UNN for clarification about the candidate, and the school revealed that Okeke is a student of the institution, and he is doing fine.

Speaking with NAN on the development, JAMB Public Communications Advisor, Dr Fabian Benjamin said the board suspected foul play.

“The law does not allow a student to matriculate twice, and as an undergraduate, he has an advantage over other candidates in the examinations.

“In his records, he claimed he is from the South-East, while the other record is reading that he is from Lagos State.

“We are suspecting that he is a mercenary in the examination,” Benjamin told NAN in a telephone interview.

The board also announced that John Ayuba from Gombe state came second in the examinations scoring 374, while Olayinka Jimoh from Kwara state scored 373.

Other top scorers are Ayibo Roberts from Rivers, Chibueze Omonugbo from Enugu state Tunmise Olawepo from Kwara and Leslie Afinotan, from Delta, all scoring 373.

Also in the list of top scorers are Chukwuemeka Azoyenime from Delta, Emmanuel Oyebode from Ogun and Cecil Omigie from Edo, all scoring 372 in the examinations.

The Federal Government has pegged the minimum admissible age for candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria at 16 years.

Minister of Education Tunji Alausa announced this on Tuesday during the 2025 Policy Meeting on Admissions, held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja.

The 16-year age requirement will be enforced through its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), with efforts made to accommodate candidates who would turn 16 by 31st August 2025.

However, JAMB expressed concern that some institutions had violated this directive by admitting underage candidates through channels outside CAPS and collecting substantial amounts from them as tuition fees.

“The Board implemented the 16-year admissible age on its CAPS platform and even bent backwards to accommodate candidates who would be 16 as of 31st August 2025.

“However, some institutions admitted candidates who were not up to the admissible age of 16 outside CAPS and even collected huge sums of money from them as tuition fees,” JAMB stated.

The Board noted that all such admissions were illegal and could not be processed through CAPS, adding that some of these cases had led to litigation against the offending institutions.

The 16-year minimum admission age comes after last year’s controversy, when former Education Minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman, faced backlash from stakeholders over his attempt to raise the benchmark to 18, a move many said was criticised.

In a related development, JAMB announced that beginning with the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), each candidate’s result slip will now include their national ranking among peers.

The initiative, according to the Board, is aimed at discouraging the celebration of high UTME scores in isolation and curbing the spread of fake scores.

“To curb the menace of celebrating top scorers of UTME, candidates’ ranking (position) will be indicated on the result slip for each candidate,” the Board explained.

JAMB stated that this measure would assist institutions in better evaluating the quality of applicants and provide a standardised reference point across cohorts.

It further questioned the logic of calls to extend the validity of UTME results, noting that such an extension would raise complications regarding the comparability of scores.

By publishing ranking information, JAMB believes that candidates parading falsified scores would also be discouraged, and institutions would gain a clearer sense of the academic standing of each applicant.

For context, the Board revealed that in the 2025 UTME, out of a total of 1,905,539 candidates, a score of 370 is ranked 16th, 320 is ranked 5,806th, 250 is ranked 107,819th, 200 is ranked 533,805th, 180 is ranked 948,025th, 140 is ranked 1,855,607th, 120 is ranked 1,900,872nd, while 100 is ranked 1,903,661st.

JAMB reiterated its commitment to equity, transparency, and merit-based admissions in Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

The ongoing policy meeting, attended by vice-chancellors, registrars, and provosts of tertiary institutions nationwide, is expected to conclude with the approval of admission cut-off marks and other regulatory guidelines for the 2025 academic session.