Tag: UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has disclosed that over 700,000 candidates have so far registered to participate in its upcoming Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, revealed this on Friday while speaking with journalists after inspecting some registered Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in Lagos.

Oloyede stated that over 700,000 candidates had been registered, including more than 11,000 underage applicants.

“As of today, we have registered 779,714 candidates. This is the second week and the tenth day of registration,” he said.

He added, “At this moment, the figure stands at 780,202, with 11,512 underage applicants. Today alone, 443 underage candidates were registered.”

According to him, JAMB introduced a policy this year to accommodate exceptionally gifted underage candidates.

“The policy maintains the minimum age of 16, as in 2024, but allows exceptions for highly gifted underage candidates.

“Underage candidates are those below 16 but exceptionally brilliant, typically aged 13 to 14,” he added.

He noted that Nigeria has misused this concept, but truly exceptional candidates should not be excluded.

“We identify a few such individuals, perhaps 30 to 50 across the country,” he said.

He encouraged exceptionally gifted underage candidates to register.

“If you believe you have something exceptional, you should register,” he stated.

JAMB also created an avenue for those who are underage or overage but want to experience the CBT format.

He clarified that underage candidates taking the CBT were not yet considered full candidates.

“Those under 16 are applicants, not candidates. Only those 16 and above are regarded as candidates,” he said.

Applicants must prove they meet the criteria, or penalties may apply.

“It would be better for them to wait, as they risk wasting their money,” he warned.

He also confirmed that some candidates were registered for free under the trial testing category.

“Trial testing candidates do not pay JAMB any fees,” he explained.

“They pay N1,000 for a book, N700 to the CBT centre, N1,500 for the exam venue, and N300 to banks as a commission.

“This totals N3,500, with JAMB taking nothing from them,” he clarified.

So far, 523 candidates nationwide have registered for the trial testing programme.

“These are realists who acknowledge they are underage, which is why we made it free for them,” he said.

The registrar also visited several CBT centres on the Lagos Mainland.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has suspended two Computer Based Centres (CBT) for a period of 14 days, for procedural breach in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration.

The two centres are Federal College of Education (Technical) centre 2 in Potiskum, Yobe State and the CBT Centre, Otukpo, Benue State.

JAMB Public Communication Advisor, Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.

Benjamin said the suspension followed a significant procedural breach that jeopardised the security measures implemented to prevent infractions.

He added that this could also prevent the integrity of the information provided to the Board in case of any contestation.

“Candidates are required to manually fill in their details before uploading them to the registration portal.

“The template containing these details must also be uploaded as evidence of their choices and the information provided.

“Some centres, despite being fully briefed on the implications of failing to adhere to these guidelines, have chosen to disregard them by submitting blank copies of the registration template in a misguided effort to increase candidate submissions.

“This suspension serves as a stern warning to any centres considering similar actions.

“Any centre found uploading blank templates in the future will face cancellation and will be barred from participating in the Board’s activities,” he said

He, therefore, advised CBT centres to ensure that all templates were filled out clearly and accurately before uploading.

Recall that the 2025 UTME registration began on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, and will conclude on March 8, 2025.

The registration for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will now commence on Monday, February 3, instead of Friday, January 31 as earlier scheduled.

Dr Fabian Benjamin, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Public Communication Advisor, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Friday.

Benjamin said the change was necessary to allow the Board to implement essential adjustments to its registration templates.

“These adjustments came in light of the recent suspension of certain law programmes at selected universities, as submitted to the Board by the Council for Legal Education.

“Additionally, the Board discovered that some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres had used deceptive facilities to be approved, prompting the need for further scrutiny and corrections by disapproving such centres.

“The Board acknowledges the disruption this may cause to candidates and other stakeholders and sincerely apologises for any inconvenience,” he said.

He added that the additional time would be used to ensure that all necessary changes were made for a smooth registration process.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released additional 531 results of the recently conducted Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), taking the total number of results released to 1,842,897.

This is contained in a statement by the Public Communication Advisor of the Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin on Tuesday in Abuja.

Benjamin said the Board had proceeded with the screening of over 64,000 withheld results due to cases of examination misconduct.

“In the course of the exercise, other cases of examination misconduct were also established to make a tally of 92 from the 81 initially discovered,” he said.

He said the Board is also looking at cases of unverified candidates and would soon come up with a position.

He added that the attention of the Board had been drawn to some fallacious publications purporting that an unknown candidate, who did not sit for the Board’s 2024 UTME obtained scores.

Benjamin described this as fake, malicious and a calculated attempt to undermine the integrity of the Board, while urging the public to disregard such publications.

He said that the publication which levels such a grievous allegation, has no details of the candidate for proper verification.

“The Board is not surprised as this is the season of mischief makers, who would want to deceive gullible candidates.

“The examination template of the Board is designed with the highest sense of responsibility and is not an allocation platform where scores are doled out to candidates.

“It is most unfortunate that anybody could even believe such narration or that the story could even gain traction given the Board’s integrity.

“This again has gone to further vindicate the Board’s stance that candidates should desist from disclosing their classified details to third-parties,” he said.

He said that in investigating some of these allegations, the Board discovered that some of these mischief makers copy results sent to other candidates.

“They then edit the details sent to them and then parade this as emanating from the Board.

“The Board challenges any candidate, parent or anybody with such a claim to prove it wrong by coming forward with the details of such claims, and the phone number with which such results were conveyed,” he said.

He said that this development would only propel the Board to further tighten the process of checking its results to make it more personalized.

Benjamin said it would be stringent when it should actually be a simple and straightforward exercise.

“The Board reiterated that neither its results nor any of its processes have been compromised.

“Hence, it will continue to protect the integrity of its systems against such malicious actors, who are hell-bent on creating confusion where none existed,” he said.

Benjamin said that the Board will add more features like registration number to the existing UTME Result checking process going forward, to make it extra difficult for anybody to edit.

He urged candidates to securely keep their details secure, noting that for if they were found associating with any of these mischievous elements, they would be treated as collaborators.

The spokesman said that the method of checking the 2024 UTME remained sending UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019 and not through any other process.

He, therefore, said the result at the moment is not on the Board’s website.