Arinze Gideon
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday said the introduction of the National Identification Number (NIN) in the 2021/2022 exam registration helped it to uncover over 500,000 fake candidates.
The Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Isha’q Oloyede, disclosed this in Enugu during a press conference.
Oloyede said his team was at the South-east to assess what was going on with the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as well as to visit the new university in Ebonyi State.
He said the use of the NIN as directed by the federal government helped to reduce examination malpractice.
“Before the introduction of NIN in the registration, there were about 2.2 million candidates for the examination, but after the introduction of NIN, over 500,000 candidates were discovered to be fake.”
He disclosed that the actual number of candidates that JAMB registered for UTME 2021 was 1,415,501, and out of it, 1,122,095 candidates had taken the examinations, while 66,111 candidates had yet to take.
According to him, the board has 650 examination centres across the country, out of which 30 centres have been delisted for performing below standard.
“Fifty three centres are currently under watch, while 600 of them performed excellently.”
He added that the students who visited a particular centre but could not take the examination would be rescheduled and a new date fixed
