445,081 Candidates Registered So Far Out Of 1.8Million Targeted For 2023 UTME- JAMB Registrar

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says  445,081 candidates have registered so far for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) out of the 1.8million targeted for this year's examination 

Registrar of the board, Prof Ishaq Oloyede who  revealed this while monitoring the registration exercise in Ilorin, Kwara State capital on Monday, insisted that there would not be an extension.

According to Oloyede,  "JAMB is planning to build a multi-million naira zonal office for Kwara which has been captured in its budget".

“We do not expect any extension. As of yesterday (Sunday), 445,081 people have registered out of the 1.8m candidates that we are expecting ",he revealed 

The Registrar exprerssed satisfaction with the number of candidates registered so far for the examination this year

“We have gone halfway but you know some of our people will come at the last hour. But there is no room for an extension because we have made provisions for the registration of 100,000 candidates per day and we are doing 60,000 daily now", Oloyede stated further" 

“So the candidates are the ones not coming up. For those who want to write mock, the space is almost filled and when that happens, we don’t want to turn the mock into another examination. When the numbers are up to a quarter of the candidates, we will stop it. Now, we have about 144,000 who have indicated interest to write the mock”, he added.

Oloyede stressed the need for the examination centres to have enough cameras to capture students writing the examination

 “I have discovered that in one of the centres, instead of buying enough cameras to capture the students, the owner bought only one with a possibility of missing the pictures with the names of the candidates. That is very detrimental to the candidates and we have to suspend the centre for registration or conduct of the exams until the proper thing is done",he stGe

“Elsewhere, we have had to make a few corrections but overall, it has been excellent because there has not been a single case of extortion. That is very gladdening to us as the purpose is to ensure that candidates have confidence in the system. We won’t allow any individual to pervert or divert the system, ”he warned

He said he doesn’t need to appeal to any centre ‘because they know we don’t have any sacred cows. Once they cross the line, they will be dealt with.’

“We have been fair to them and that is why we on our own raised the fee of registration point from N700 to N1000 because of the price of diesel and we collect it on their behalf including the mock fee and pay the centres which amount to about N100m. We will continue to make the business profitable for the CBT centres but will not allow them to exploit the candidates,” Oloyede said.

According to him," the inspection is to ensure that the rules and regulations for registration are complied with “because we have to see what is going on and convinced our people that we don’t need to cut corners”.