The Kano State Bureau of Statistics has faulted a publication by Premium Times which suggested that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf erred in his claim that Kano State produced the highest number of candidates with five credits and above in the 2025 NECO Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).
In a statement signed by the Statistician-General of the state, Dr. Aliyu Isa Aliyu, the Bureau described the report as “misleading and not reflective of the official statistics released by NECO.”
The Bureau explained that as the coordinating body of the State Statistical System, it reviewed NECO’s official data and found that the report had relied on a selective analysis, highlighting only one indicator where Abia State came first, while ignoring five other major indicators that placed Kano in the lead.
According to the Bureau, six key indicators were extracted and analyzed from NECO’s 2025 results. Out of these, Kano ranked first in five, while Abia led in one.
Kano had the highest candidate participation with 137,338 registered, 136,762 who sat, and 103,579 who attained five credits and above irrespective of Mathematics and English.
This, the Bureau said, was the largest absolute figure nationwide—well ahead of Lagos with 85,071 and Oyo with 70,609.
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On female performance, Kano also emerged first. Out of 75,115 girls registered and 74,098 who sat, 39,851 obtained five credits including Mathematics and English, surpassing Lagos (38,804) and Oyo (26,371).
When considered irrespective of Mathematics and English, 59,771 Kano girls passed, again topping Lagos (48,202) and Oyo (33,201).
In male performance, 62,223 boys registered in Kano and 61,854 sat, out of which 43,808 attained five credits irrespective of Mathematics and English—higher than Lagos with 38,869 and Oyo with 22,371.
While Lagos narrowly came first in the stricter benchmark of five credits including Mathematics and English (30,203), Kano followed closely with 28,308 despite a much larger enrollment base.
“The attempt to downplay this achievement by isolating a single indicator is a distortion of facts,” the statement read. “The Governor’s assertion that Kano produced the highest number of students with five credits and above is fully supported by official NECO statistics.”
The statement concluded by reaffirming Kano’s position as the leading state in educational performance in 2025, describing it as the “education hub of Nigeria.”