JAMB registers 600,000 candidates for UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Saturday said 600,000 candidates have so far registered for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The board also said it would blacklist any vendors or its agents who violate its rules for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise.

The Registrar of the board, Prof Is’haq Oloyede, stated this in Ibadan on Saturday, while monitoring the registration exercise at some centres.

Oloyede, who said he was impressed and satisfied with the registration process at the centres visited, said the involvement of parents was part of the problem faced in the on-going 2022 UTME registration.

“There are few places where it could be better but here at the University of Ibadan, it has been very excellent.

“Some CBT centres, vendors and agents will be blacklisted, the implication is that if you do not follow the rules, you do not have the right to our accreditation,” he said.

Oloyede stated that part of the quality assurance mechanism was to allow a candidate to see who is registering him/her.

“The purpose of that is that a candidate sits in front of the screen for about six to seven minutes and he or she will be seeing the large picture of the person registering.

“It is possible that if there are problems, the person will be able to recognise the person who registered him or her.

“But, If you minimise that picture and that candidate cannot identify you in case of a problem, that is a violation of one of our rules.

“Follow the rules you need not think for us because we have a purpose for what we are doing,” the registrar said.

On those selling above the official price of N4700, Oloyede said: “If someone who is vending the pin at the particular place is selling consistently more than N4,700, those registering here (at a particular centre) ought to know and if not, then we will hold them responsible for not being vigilant because it is within their premises.

“But we will not hold them responsible for the charges because every pin sold, we know the vendor, so we could trace the vendor, we call E-transact or System Spec Remita, but all of them at the face value they will sell at N4,700.

“But their agents may collect more than that, like a woman that collected more and pocketed N1000 by selling the form at N5700; because Etransact will not sell above N4,700, but the agents are exhorting them.

“That is why we say, vendors must know their customers, those who are their agents.

”Therefore, if your pin is sold a quarter above N4,700, we will hold you responsible and that is why we invited three banks yesterday and mobile money operators and gave them warning.

“We also gave them evidence that their agents are fraudulent and we have blacklisted those agents who would never be allowed to participate in any activities of JAMB because we know their names and NIN. That was why we said anybody vending we must have their name and NIN,” he said.

Oloyede said the implication of the blacklist is that “when the person is blacklisted our server will not allow him or her work anywhere related to JAMB.

“And, even if the person wants to be a student, our server will tell us to mark the person as someone who is not to be trusted. So we will now tell the university that this person you want to admit this is his or her record.”

He said as of the time of the monitoring exercise about 600,000 candidates have been registered out of the target of 1.5 million.

The registrar said going by the pace of the registration process, if there is no disruption, no serious candidate would be left out by March 26 when the registration will close.

He noted that the board has put measures in place to consolidate on past gains in the use of technology.

“We are also checking our system to be sure that it is doing OK and so far so good. We are trying to consolidate only adding one or two additions in the examination site this year,” Oloyede said.

Also, Mrs Francesca Ayodele, Deputy Registrar, University of Ibadan overseeing the CBT centre at the Distance Learning Centre of the institution, said the CBT centre in UI has been having smooth operations.

“And, as you know UI is a very creditable institution so we are leveraging the good name of the institution. The regulation is going on peacefully,” she said.