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Tag: JAMB

  • 86 million Nigerians enrolled for NIN in 10 years – NIMC

    86 million Nigerians enrolled for NIN in 10 years – NIMC

    The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has enrolled 86 million Nigerians into the National Identity Database and issued them the National Identification Number (NIN) from 2012 to July 2022.

    The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Malam Aliyu Aziz,  made this known during a “Lunch Time Seminar” organised by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) in Abuja on Friday.

    Aziz who spoke via zoom said that the commission has not relented in its effort to establish  National Identity Database (NIDB), register citizens and non-citizens and issue unique identifier NIN, among others.

    He reiterated the commission’s commitment to provide identity authentication and verification services, harmonise and integrate existing ID databases, preserve, protect, secure and safeguard the data in the NIDB.

    “NIMC works to collaborate with public and private sector to realize the ID functions and regulate the Nigerian Identity sector.

    “The Commission embarked on an enrolment strategy in 2012, which has grown exponentially since 2015. The current goal is to have enrolled 10 times the number of the previous year.

    “The enrolment shows 60,000 in 2012, seven million in 2015, 28 million in 2017, 43 million in 2020 and 86 million as at July 2022 with about 18,000 enrolment centres across Nigeria,’’ Aziz said.

    He added that so far, the commission has been harmonising Bank Verification Number ( BVN), mandatory use of NIN for passport application and renewal and implementation of ecosystem approach to enrolment.

    “Others are the national ID policy for SIM card registration, national policy on digital ID for internally displaced persons, use of NIN for JAMB, completed assessments on technical, cyber security, social, environmental, financial, among others.”

    The DG urged BPSR to assist in building and strengthening collaborations and promote the participation of government agencies in the data capture services.

    He also called on the bureau to drive the enforcement of the mandatory use of NIN for services across governments, as well as support and participate in driving the integration the NIN into various functional databases across government agencies.

    Aziz said that BPRS should also accelerate participation in sensitisation of key government agencies’ stakeholders on the ID project, including the harmonisation of all government databases with the national identity database for more effective and low-cost governance.

    He also urged the bureau to encourage government agencies to be innovative using the NIN, and collecting and verifying data for NIN issuance and usage at various government service points, among others.

    Also speaking, the DG of BPSR, Mr Dasuki Arabi said that the essence of the lunch time seminar was to help Nigerians keep abreast with reforms in public service delivery.

    He said that the NIMC DG was featured for the seminar so that Nigerians would appreciate the effort of the commission towards achieving a single national identifier.

    According to him, the national identifier is where existing forms of identification such as National Drivers License and International Passports would be aligned and synchronised.

    He added that participants would also get answers to some pressing questions such as the achievements of NIMC towards data harmonization, challenges and way forward towards National Digital Identity Ecosystem Reforms.

  • JAMB results to become valid for four years

    JAMB results to become valid for four years

    A Bill seeking to make Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) results valid for four years has passed the second reading in the House of Representatives.

    The Amendment of the JAMB Act was sponsored by Rep. Tolulope Sadipe (APC-Oyo), at the plenary on Thursday.

    Leading the debate, Sadipe said many students sit for JAMB examination, come up with good grades, but for one reason or the other, they ended up not being offered admission, for no fault of theirs.

    She said these students and their parents, were made to bear the financial burden to sit for the examination the next year.

    According to her, the excuses that JAMB allegedly keeps bringing up, in that regard, was that it was revenue generation for them.

    “When you look at the number of students that apply for university admissions every year and the number that eventually get in, it is definitely not their fault, so, why should they be penalised?

    “Everywhere in the world, there is no such exams that is valid for one year; Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is valid forever.

    “Most universities across the world value such exams for at least five years, but here in Nigeria, JAMB is valid for just one entry, and if you do not get it, you repeat it.

    “I think this is totally unfair, there are a lot of children in this country, whose parents are struggling to put them through school.

    However, while contributing to the debate, Rep. Nkem Abonta (PDP-Abia), argued that extending the validity of JAMB result would defeat the aim of the entry exams.

    He said that JAMB Act, sought to regulate the mode of entry into Nigerians universities, saying that making the result valid for two to three years would cause more problems.

    Abonta said the relevant committee should look at the proposed amendment critically, so as not to compound the problem, in an attempt to solve it.

    Rep. Chinyere Igwe (PDP-Rivers), argued that there was a difference between an entry examination and a terminal examination.

    He said, “JAMB is an entry examination, with the purpose of securing admission into a university, polytechnic or colleges of education, with a view to earning a terminal qualification,”.

    The lawmaker said the foreign exams mentioned by the sponsor of the bill, are terminal examinations, and not entry examination, like JAMB.

    He said that when one sat for entry examination and did not make the cut off score, the exam was reseated.

    The rep said that making the result valid for two years would reduce the standard of education in the country.

    Rep. Toby Okechukwu (PDP-Enugu) urged the house not to “throw the baby and bathwater away”.

    According to him, students and their parents and sponsors had not only been suffering “double jeopardy, but several jeopardies”.

    He said some students had continued to pass JAMB exams, and had not been able to go to school for over five years, which sometimes often results into dropping out of school.

    In his remarks, the Deputy Speaker, Rep. Ahmed Wase, referred the bill to the relevant committees of the house, for further legislative actions.

  • JAMB warns CBT centres against extortion

    JAMB warns CBT centres against extortion

    JAMB warned on Monday that operators of accredited Computer Based Tests (CBT) centres must desist from extorting candidates or face severe sanctions.

    It stated in its weekly bulletin that its attention had been drawn to reports that some operators charged higher than the N700 fee stipulated for services rendered to candidates.

    It reiterated that it would not condone any form of exploitation and would impose a N100,000 fine on culprits after they had been made to refund money collected.

    “Centre owners are warned that failure to desist from the nefarious act would attract a fine of N100, 000 and possible revocation of licence issued by JAMB.

    “Candidates are advised to report any CBT centre charging above the board’s stipulated fee for any of its services,’’ it stated.

    The board also stated the hope that centres it granted licence to perform certain functions would behave up to expectation.

    In February, JAMB accredited CBT centres to register candidates, applying for part-time studies, Sandwich programmes, National Open University of Nigeria programmes, and distance learning programmes.

    JAMB stated that the licencing, at the request of the CBT centres, was a measure to decongest its offices nationwide, following usually crowded exercises during the process.

  • ASUU strike unnecessary – JAMB registrar, Oloyede

    Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said the ongoing national strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was unnecessary.

    Oloyede said this on Friday in Ilorin during the flag-off and presention of equipment, facilitated by JAMB, at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

    He urged the leadership of the ASUU to call off the ongoing industrial action by the university lecturers in the country.

    The registrar, who was the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, noted that the protracted and incessant strikes by unions in the nation’s tertiary institutions was capable of causing irreparable damage, on not just the students, but also the nation.

    Oloyede, therefore, urged both the government and the unions to find ways of putting an end to the “unnecessary strike”.

    The registrar added that the intervention of JAMB in the area of healthcare delivery was to support the government’s efforts aimed at addressing the huge medical infrastructural gap in the country

    “JAMB will continue to prune down its expenses through prudent management, adoption of relevant cost-saving technology, and other efficiency-strategies.

    “This is to free up resources to support major stakeholders such as the tertiary health and educational institutions in order to uplift the health and educational institutions,” he said.

  • UTME: JAMB to further screen 27,105 results

    UTME: JAMB to further screen 27,105 results

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board said it would further screen 27,105 results of candidates who wrote the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

    The board made this known on Monday, in Abuja.

    In the statistics made available in the Weekly Bulletin from the Office of the Registrar, JAMB noted 1, 761, 338 candidates registered for the exercise.

    It also added that, 1, 707, 626 sat for the exercise and results of 1, 671, 203 candidates have so far been released.

    It however, said that 69 results have so far being withheld and 27, 105 were undergoing further screening, while 1, 783 candidates who experienced biometric challenges were being investigated, to ascertain their claims.

    The 2022 UTME held from Friday, May 6 to Friday, May 13.

    In a similar development, JAMB said that it conducted the 2022 UTME for foreign candidates on Saturday.

    The board said the exercise took place in five out of its nine foreign centres and was a complete success.

    JAMB said the centres where the examination were held include: Accra, Ghana; Johannesburg, South Africa; Buea, Cameroun, Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire and Cotonou, Benin Republic.

    However, its said, the 2022 Foreign UTME will take place in Berlin, Germany; London, UK, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and New York, United States of America in due course.

    It further explained that the exercise was part of the boards’ largesse, towards providing succour to foreign candidates who signaled interest to attend Nigerian tertiary institutions in its academic year.

    The board said that its International policy on test administration, aims at attracting more foreign candidates to the nation’s tertiary institutions and the policy has been yielding positive results.

  • Don’t believe UTME 2022 retake rumour – JAMB tells public

    Don’t believe UTME 2022 retake rumour – JAMB tells public

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says there is plan to retake the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examinations (UTME).

    The Board therefore warned candidates and other stakeholders to be wary of activities of fraudsters who are making false claims of errors in the scoring of candidates in the 2022 UTME.

    This is contained in a statement by JAMB’s Director of Public Relations, Fabian Benjamin on Tuesday, a copy of which TheNewsGuru.com obtained.

    The board stated in the statement that the UTME is a computer-based test that is scored electronically with no human mediation whatsoever.

    It therefore means the board has no plans to conduct another UTME for the 2022 session.

    The document consequently stated that the unfounded rumours making the rounds are nothing but the products of the deceitful brains of the masterminds of these baseless inputations.

    READ ALSO: JAMB addresses issues relating to 2022 UTME results

    “Hence, the board reiterates that there is no room for errors in its electronic scoring system, nor does it plan to “This clarification became necessary following reports of a purported rescheduling of the UTME from a section of the social media citing phantom errors in the computer scoring system and a purported apology from JAMB to the effect that another UTME would be organised.

    “The Board wishes to state that the report is not only false, mischievous but also misleading and crafted out of the frustration and inability of these fraudsters to dupe unsuspecting candidates owing to the series of innovative strategies the board had put in place to protect candidates.

    “The public would recall that the board had envisaged some of these inglorious strategies of these nefarious individuals and had sounded a warning to the candidates and the general public alike to preclude the possibilities of them falling victims of the evil machinations of fraudsters.

    “JAMB, once again, advises the general public to disregard these items of news as it does not emanate from JAMB, nor has it authorised any individual or group to make such a pronouncement on its behalf.

    “The Board, therefore, advises candidates to avail themselves of its user-friendly advisories on assessing their 2022 UTME results and other processes through periodic visits to www.jamb.gov.ng.”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that JAMB, like other examination bodies in the country and in many parts of the world have continued to face challenges from fifth columnists always deciding means to subvert their authority with JAMB always making concerted efforts to beat them to their games.

    With rumoured plans to penetrate and manipulate results this year by hackers, rather than the usual feeding of candidate results on their website, JAMB came up with a smart move by sending the results directly to candidates’ mobile phones using the phone numbers they used during the registration exercise.

  • JAMB addresses issues relating to 2022 UTME results

    JAMB addresses issues relating to 2022 UTME results

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has debunked reports of error in the scoring of candidates in the just concluded 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

    The board warned the public especially candidates of the last UTME to be wary of the guile and other unsavoury activities of fraudsters who were making false claims of errors in the scoring system.

    Dr Fabian Benjamin, Head, Public Affairs and Protocol of the board made this known in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.

    Benjamin said that the board was, therefore, maintaining for the umpteenth time, that the UTME was a Computer Based Test (CBT) that was scored electronically with no human mediation whatsoever.

    “Consequently, the unfounded rumours making the rounds are nothing but the products of the deceitful brains of the masterminds of these baseless imputations.

    “Hence, the Board reiterates that there is no room for errors in its electronic scoring system nor does it plan to organise another UTME.

    “This clarification became necessary following reports of a purported rescheduling of the UTME from a section of the social media citing phantom errors in the computer scoring system and a purported apology from JAMB to the effect that another UTME would be organised.

    “The board wishes to state that the report is not only false, mischievous but also misleading and crafted out of the frustration and inability of these fraudsters to dupe unsuspecting candidates owing to the series of innovative strategies the board had put in place to protect candidates,” he said.

    Benjamin also recalled that the board had envisaged some of the strategies of these nefarious individuals and had sounded a note of warning to the candidates and the general public alike.

    This is to preclude the possibility of them falling victims to the evil machinations of fraudsters.

    “JAMB, once again, advises the general public to disregard this item of news as it does not emanate from JAMB nor has it authorised any individual or group to make such a pronouncement on its behalf.

    “The board, therefore, advises candidates to avail themselves of its user-friendly advisories on assessing their 2022 UTME results and other processes through periodic visits to www.jamb.gov.ng.

  • JAMB increases UTME service charge at CBT centres

    JAMB increases UTME service charge at CBT centres

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has approved that its accredited Computer Based Tests (CBT) centres should increase service charge for a candidate from N1,400 to N2,000.

    JAMB made this known in its Weekly Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar on Monday in Abuja.

    The board explained that initially, candidates paid the sum of N1,400 made up of N700 for mock-UTME and another N700 for the UTME.

    The board said that the decision for approval by its management followed the high cost of diesel and other energy challenges in the country.

    “Henceforth, partnering CBT centres will collect the sum of N2, 000 as service charges from candidates sitting for both the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and mock-UTME.

    “In essence, candidates who did not indicate to sit for the mock-UTME will pay only N1, 000 for the UTME while those who want to sit for the mock UTME will pay an additional N1000.

    “This is irrespective of whether they sit for the examination or not,” it stated.

    It stated that the Board resolved on this move as many candidates who indicated interest to take the mock-UTME had oftentimes refused to turn up for the exercise.

    “They end up forcing the centres to expend resources in preparation for their appearance.

    “The implication of this is that once you indicate interest to sit the mock-UTME, you are duty bound to pay for the exercise whether you take the examination or do otherwise,” it stated.

    It, however, explained that the high cost of maintaining the centres for the two exercises, prompted it to approve the increase to ameliorate the pressure on the centres.

    “Consequently, candidates are now advised to make up their minds if, indeed, they want to participate in the mock exercise before indicating their interest at the point of registration.

    “This is because they will be required to pay for it.

    “It is also owing to the fact that once candidates indicate their interest to take the mock-UTME, the centres to which they will be assigned to will be mandated to put in place necessary facilities to prepare for their appearance,” JAMB said.

    In a similar development, the board also said that it would delist all CBT centres that failed to meet up with its approved capacity during the 2022 exercise.

    This, JAMB said, would include all centres that were not able to perform optimally to the approved capacities leading to the reduction of their capacities to conduct the 2022 UTME to specification.

    “Those centres that experienced same challenges in the previous year but were pardoned, yet failed to address their failings would be permanently delisted,” it stated.

    The board said that the measure became imperative as it had begun preparations for its next exercise, while also assuring of its readiness to surpass this year’s success in subsequent exercises.

    JAMB also said that fresh CBT centres applications would require a facility, fitted solely with laptops having a minimum of 14 inch monitor before securing necessary approval.

    This, the board said, was part of measures to curb power outages in centres during its exercise.

    It also urged both new and old centres to acquire alternative power sources in form of inverters and solar energy, rather than depending solely on generator power.

    Other additional minimum requirements, JAMB noted, would be released subsequently.

  • Just In: JAMB releases 2022 UTME results

    Just In: JAMB releases 2022 UTME results

    JAMB has released results of the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

    In a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday, Dr Fabian Benjamin, Head, Public Affairs and Protocol in JAMB advised candidates to send UTMERESULT in one word to 55019 to have their results checked.

    He stated that JAMB had not uploaded the results to its website for obvious reasons; hence candidates could check their results using the SMS code.

    “To check the 2022 UTME result, all a candidate needs to do is to simply send UTMERESULT to 55019 using the same phone number that he or she used for registration.

    “The result will be sent as a response to the candidate’s text message. This is the only process of checking the 2022 UTME results for now as the board has not uploaded it on its website for obvious reasons.

    “In addition, candidates are forewarned that they would, as usual, receive all kinds of messages from desperate fraudsters on how to check their results different from the aforementioned one.

    “Hence, JAMB urges all candidates to ignore all such messages on how to check their 2022 UTME results as they are all products of deceit aimed at misleading them,’’’ he stated.

    Benjamin stressed that JAMB adopted the user-friendly and simplified process of checking UTME results through the use of SMS to adhere to the ease of doing business protocol of the government.

    He added that the process was simplified to preclude the unconscionable exploitation of candidates by shylock business centres and cyber cafes which often took advantage of hapless candidates.

    The 2022 UTME began on May 6 and ended on May 16.

  • 1 dies during attack on JAMB officials in Lagos hotel

    1 dies during attack on JAMB officials in Lagos hotel

    A gateman with Mabila Hotel in Ikorodu, Lagos State, was killed in the early hours of Wednesday by some unknown gunmen and robbed some officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that lodged there.

    The Police spokesman for Lagos Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.

    He said that the JAMB officials had been relocated to a safe place.

    The PPRO said, “One Prof. Odunsi, an official of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) who lodged at the hotel was robbed of his two phones, one HP Laptop and N20,000 cash.

    “Similarly, two female officials of JAMB, who lodged at the hotel, were robbed of their phones and jewellery,” he said.

    The spokesman said that the hoodlums shot the hotel’s gateman, simply identified as Peter, 40, who attempted to prevent them from escaping.

    He explained that the gateman was rushed to an undisclosed hospital where he later died, adding that the corpse had been deposited at the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary.

    Hundeyin said that the police got a distress call at about 2.40 a.m. on Wednesday that some hoodlums had invaded the hotel located at No. 60, Omodisu St., Asolo-Owutu, Agric area in Ikorodu.

    He said that based on the call, the police from Owutu Division went to the place immediately, adding that when the hoodlums sighted the police van coming, they all fled in a Lexus SUV.

    “The Commissioner of Police for Lagos State, CP Abiodun Alabi, has assured that no stone will be left unturned. He has ordered a serious manhunt for the suspects,” he said.