The West African Examinations Council has appointed Nigerian education administrator, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, as its new Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, elevating him to the regional leadership of the examination body after more than two decades of service within the institution.
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Dangut, who until September headed WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, assumed office on October 1, 2026, as the Council’s 14th Registrar. He will serve a five-year tenure running from October 2026 to September 2031.
He succeeds Alhaji Pateh Bah of The Gambia.
The appointment was announced in a statement issued by the Head of Public Affairs at WAEC Headquarters in Accra, Ghana, Demianus G. Ojijeogu.
According to the statement, Dangut’s appointment had earlier been ratified by the Council, WAEC’s international governing board, during its 74th Annual Meeting held in Accra in March 2026.
His emergence at the head of the regional examination body comes after three years as Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, a position he occupied from October 2023 until September 2026.
Dangut had taken over the Nigerian office from Patrick Areghan in 2023 after rising through the Council’s administrative structure from Assistant Registrar to Deputy Registrar.
Born on October 2, 1967, Dangut holds a Bachelor of Agriculture degree in Animal Production obtained in 1991, a Master of Science in Animal Science awarded in 1994, a Doctor of Philosophy in Animal Science obtained in 2017 and a Master of Education in Administration and Planning earned in 2020.
His career in education began in 1994 at St. Louis College, Jos, where he also served as a WAEC examiner before formally joining the examination body in 1998.
Since then, he has worked in different areas of examination administration, test development, security, post-examination processing and regional management.
Among the positions he has held are Assistant Registrar in the Test Development Division at Ogba, Lagos; Head of Examinations Security; Deputy Branch Controller in Uyo and Bauchi; Branch Controller in Yola; Controller of the Post-Examinations Department; Zonal Coordinator in Ikeja; and Deputy Registrar before becoming Head of the Nigeria National Office.
His years within WAEC have also coincided with the examination body’s increasing movement towards digital assessment and technology-driven examination administration.
As Head of the Nigeria National Office, Dangut championed initiatives including the introduction and expansion of computer-based WASSCE, the serialisation of examination question papers and the Digital Electronic Marking System.
He also supervised systems including the WAEC Digital Certificate Portal, E-Study Platform, Digital Records Archive and technology deployed for examination logistics and the monitoring of examiners.
Under his leadership of the Nigerian office, WAEC continued its transition towards computer-based examinations. In October 2025, the Council tested its computer-based format for essay papers in Lagos ahead of wider implementation in the 2026 school examination.
Dangut was also at the centre of the administration of the 2026 WASSCE for school candidates, during which about 1.95 million candidates sat for the examination nationwide.
Beyond examination administration, his career has included involvement with several education bodies.
He has served on the boards of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the Grange Educational Foundation.
He has also represented WAEC at the Joint Consultative Committee on Education and the National Council on Education.
Dangut received a commendation from the Nigeria Examinations Committee for his handling of examination-related responsibilities between 2000 and 2006. He also received an Award for Meritorious Service from the Ondo State Government during his National Youth Service Corps year.
His professional work has extended beyond Nigeria.
He currently serves as Regional Representative of the West African sub-region on the Executive Board of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa.
Dangut is also a Fellow of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management.
He has published works in national and international journals and presented papers at professional and academic conferences.
His assumption of office takes him from overseeing WAEC operations in Nigeria to responsibility for the wider Council, whose examination and assessment activities cut across its West African member countries.
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