The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB) has said that candidates must declare their previous registration and admission history with the board, stressing that some students were involved in examination malpractice during the conduct of last year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Speaking in Lagos on Saturday at a meeting with Commissioners for Education in Preparation for this year’s UTME & Direct Entry Exercises, JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede noted it is a crime by law to run more than one undergraduate programmes concurrently,thus failure to disclose such prior admission is an offence which will be sanctioned.
Oloyede said only candidates who will not be less than 16 years old by September 30, 2026 are generally eligible to apply for the UTME and be considered for admission.
The registrar noted that underage candidates who will be less than 16 years old by 30th September, 2026, will undergo an intensive evaluation to determine their eligibility for a waiver, adding that such must have scored not less than 80 percent in each of UTME/A’LEVEL, PUTME, SSCE and in the exceptional candidate assessment.
Oloyede said: “The sale of UTME application document which is the ePIN, will start earlier than commencement of actual registration which is Jan. 19 to Feb. 26.
“Actual UTME registration period is between Jan. 26th to Feb. 28th at all approved CBT Centres.
“The close of mock selection is Feb. 16 while the sale of DE application documents and E-PIN vending will commence on March 2, and close by April 25,” he said.
Oloyede said unlike last year, the UTME results of the underage candidates will be released only at the conclusion of the complete evaluation process.
According to him,said all centres participating in the UTME registration exercise would be monitored live from JAMB Headquarters, stressing that any centre whose registration activities cannot viewed from its headquarters will not be paid, while such registration may be invalidated.
He revealed that 924 centres had been screened and provisionally listed, adding that they would go through the final test before final accreditation to participate in the UTME registration and examination.
The JAMB Registrar stated that candidates are not required to pay any money as service charge to any CBT centre.
Speaking on distant posting he said JAMB does not post any candidate to any examination town (or group of towns) other than the one chosen by the candidate at the point of registration.
The Board Registrar advised candidates to register early since their preferred town may no longer have space for them at late period, adding that the choice of a group of towns implies that candidates can be posted to any of the towns in the chosen group.
