Brilliant 16-year-old girl emerges overall best in UTME 2026
A brilliant 16-year-old Nigerian girl, Owoeye Daniella Jesudunsin, has emerged as the overall highest scorer in the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) after scoring an impressive 372 out of 400.
The announcement was made during the 2026 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions held in Abuja, where the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) unveiled the list of top-performing candidates.
Daniella’s Outstanding Performance
Daniella, an indigene of Ekiti State who sat for the examination in Ogun State, is seeking admission to study Medicine and Surgery at University of Lagos.
A breakdown of her result showed that she scored 98 in English Language, 98 in Chemistry, 94 in Physics, and 82 in Biology.
Speaking about her achievement, Daniella revealed that this was not her first attempt at the examination.
“I Experienced Glitches Last Year”
According to her, she also sat for the UTME in 2025 but could not secure admission after experiencing technical glitches at her examination centre.
In her words:
“This isn’t my first UTME. I graduated from secondary school last year, so I sat for the UTME last year. I couldn’t gain admission due to the glitches I experienced in my exam centre, which affected my result.”
She explained that her preparation for the 2026 UTME began while preparing for the previous examination and appreciated her school, EFVP Wisdom Spring Model School, for contributing to her success.
Daniella added that she deliberately set a high target for herself.
“I was aiming for nothing less than 350, so I fixed my goal at 370+,” she said.
Other Top Candidates
According to JAMB records, Enwere Kingsley Ikenna from Imo State emerged second with a score of 370 after sitting for the examination in Lagos State. He applied to Nile University to study Computer Science.
Bamisile Ayomide Emmanuel from Ondo State came third with 369 marks and is seeking admission to study Software Engineering at Federal University of Technology Akure.
Several other candidates also scored between 367 and 368 in the examination.