The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has set 140 and above as cut off mark for 2022/23 admissions into universities across the country.

The Registrar of the board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this during a presentation at the 2023 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions and awards in Abujaon Saturday, June 24.

He also disclosed that 100 had been approved as cut off mark into Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

He however mentioned that universities are at liberty to decide individual cut-off marks but no university will be allowed to admit any candidate who scores below the 140 benchmark.

He stated that the University of Jos has proposed 180 as cut-off mark for admissions; the University of Ibadan proposed 200; University of Benin proposed 200; University of Lagos proposed 200; and the Federal University of Technology proposed 180, among others.

The Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, is the only university that proposed the highest benchmark of 220, while about 15 universities, most especially those in the private sector, advised that the benchmark be lowered to 120, a move that was rejected.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has disclosed it paid a total sum of N1,478,416,000.00 to owners of non-JAMB Computer-Based Test centres nationwide for services they rendered during the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

JAMB made the disclosure in a statement on Thursday by the Director, Public Affairs and Protocol of the Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin.

Mr. Benjamin said it was only proper to promptly settle obligations as and when due so as to promote and sustain a cordial working relationship with partners who discharge their duties creditably.

“It is to be noted that most of the centres used for the examination are not JAMB-owned while some are ICT facilities of tertiary institutions.

“This symbiotic relationship between the board and the privately-owned CBT centres and others is collaborative in nature and is designed to ensure better quality service delivery and inclusiveness.

“Hence, the board is proud to announce that all centres owners who rendered quality service during the just-concluded examination had been appropriately commended for a job well done and paid accordingly,” he stated.

A 15-year-old student of Bishop Otubelu Juniorate, Trans Ekulu, Enugu, named Lotanna Azuokeke, who sat for the just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, reportedly scored 99 marks in Mathematics.

Dr Chiwuike Uba, Media Adviser to the Bishop of the Diocese of Nike (Anglican Communion), the Founder of the school said Azuokeke, a native of Ọba in the Idemmili South LGA of Anambra State, scored a total of 337 marks in the examination; 88 marks in Chemistry, 86 in Physics, and 64 in the English Language.

The statement read;

“Azụokeke broke record set by Chidera Obi who scored 329 marks to emerge overall best, five years ago.

“Report shows that Azuokeke applied to study Electrical/Electronics Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.”

The registration of over 817 candidates for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations and Direct Entry examinations has been cancelled by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board over alleged impersonation.

The decision was made after JAMB authorities uncovered the strange use of biometrics during the registration process.Registrar of the examination body, Professor Ishaq Oloyede said some registration officers in the affected 178 Computer-Based Test centres added their fingerprints to complete the registration process for the candidates.

The 817 affected students will be given another opportunity to re-register for the exam with the centres bearing the cost. Ishaq said;

“For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure, we found that some of them were only naive, because you will hear them saying my finger was hot, and the man added his own. And you allowed him to add his own?

“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation, but we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not genuine. We will cancel all of them, all the registrations, and we will ask them to re-register.

“The centres involved, we have just met with them, and they all confessed, nobody is disputing it, even students that were telling lies, they know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be accommodated.

“On their own (the CBT centres owners), they suggested the solution. We will cancel the registrations of those people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the very centres where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to the board the cost of registration of the candidates.

“By adding his or her finger to your registration, it means he or her can change all your particulars when you are not there. You know your finger is what is used to identify you. The person can change your examination centre like say from Lagos to Ibadan, and on the exam day you won’t be able to write the exam.

“That is why we put in place a device that will throw up any strange finger that is not yours and that is why we were able to identify them.”

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has suspended two registration centres for collecting N6,500 from candidates for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination e-form PIN instead of the authorised N5,700.

Speaking on Tuesday at the JKK Computer-Based-Test Centre, Ilupeju, Lagos, while monitoring the registration process across Lagos, Registrar, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, called for the immediate blockage of access and activities of the Parkway Project and Digital Partners on the JAMB portal for extorting candidates.

He added that another JAMB agent, E-Transact, was also on suspension for not complying with the rules and regulations of the board.

“Every agent was paid 5% of the whole money. The money was collected by JAMB, and every Friday, we pay them for the week. We’ve already paid over N300 million in commissions, so there’s no need to extort candidates. They are our agents. E-Transact is on suspension too,” he said.

Oloyede also emphasised that the registration time would not be extended beyond February 12, 2023, saying that the board expected registration of 100,000 per day, but just recently, it had been within 62,000 per day.

Recall that JAMB announced the closure of some substandard CBT centres, which reduced the number of CBT centres across the country.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it will commence registration for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) from Saturday, January 14 to Tuesday, February 14, 2023.In a statement issued on Tuesday, December 20, by the board’s Head of Media and Information, Mister Fabian Benjamin, the examination body stated some major dates for its activities in 2023 at the end of its management meeting held in Abuja.

JAMB’s spokesman said Direct Entry registration would commence from Monday, 20th February to Thursday, 20th April 2023.

JAMB’s head of public affairs and protocol, Fabian Benjamin, said in a statement that the management of the board made the approvals at a meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Benjamin said the 2023 UTME registration begins Saturday, 14 January 2023, and ends Tuesday, 14th February 2023.

He said the computer-based UTME test will be conducted between Saturday, 29th April 2023, and Monday, 12th May 2023.

The agency also fixed Thursday, 16th March 2023, for the conduct of its optional mock UTME.

Meanwhile, Mr Benjamin said registration for the Direct Entry (DE) candidates is scheduled for Monday, 20th February to Thursday, 20th April 2023.

The board, however, made changes to the modus operandi of the mock UTME usually conducted before the main tests.

He said candidates are now required to pay N1,000 during registration, to prevent losses for the operators of CBT centres should the candidates fail to turn up for the mock exams.

While Mock UTME is voluntary, JAMB said many candidates had in the past failed to show up on the date of the mock exams after CBT centres must have prepared for the tests.

He said: “Candidates are to note that they would be required to pay the sum of N1000 service charge for CBT centres for the conduct of mock examination at the point of registration to prevent a situation where candidates would indicate their interest to sit the mock-UTME leading the various centres to commit human and material resources only for them to stay away on the day of the examination.

“With the new arrangement, candidates indicate their interest by paying for the mock at the point of UTME registration, therefore, precluding the centres from incurring any loss whether candidates turn up or not.

The Board advises all candidates, who desire to register for the 2023 UTME to immediately embark on the creation of their respective profiles (creation of profile code) ahead of the formal commencement of the registration exercise to avoid being caught up in any ensuing bottleneck.”

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it would conduct a supplementary Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for 67 candidates on Saturday, September 24,2022.

JAMB’s Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin said the supplementary exam was fixed for the candidates after reviewing the entire exercise.

The statement released on Monday September 19, read;

“The examination is for 67 candidates who had registered for the 2022 UTME, but who could neither sit the examination nor take the just-concluded Mop-Up UTME owing to one challenge or another, to take their examination at specially-designated centres.

“It would be recalled that after the 2022 UTME, the Board had reviewed the entire exercise and those candidates with biometric challenges were given the opportunity of sitting a mop-up examination.

“The Board also announced that since the conduct of a mop-up examination is a stopgap measure, it would not be allowed to be a permanent feature of its calendar. Therefore, any candidate presenting any strange challenge(s) would have to indicate or declare such peculiarities at the point of registration for them to be given special consideration and allocated to centres within its National Headquarters, Abuja, for close monitoring as the Board had phased out the conduct of mop-up examinations.

“However, in spite of the discovery of series of suspicious challenges presented by some candidates, the Board has, on account of its avowed commitment to equity and fairness, scheduled another set of 67 candidates to sit the examination at designated centres, under close scrutiny of the Board.”

This decision to give these set of candidates this unusual opportunity is to ensure that no single innocent candidate is punished unjustly.

“These 67 candidates are, therefore, urged to print their supplementary examination notification slips from Monday, 19th September, 2022, to know the centres where they would be sitting the examination.”

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board is set to hold the 2022 policy meeting for the 2022/2023 admission on July 21, 2022, The PUNCH has learnt.

The board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, disclosed in a text message sent to our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday.

The PUNCH reports that the policy meeting will be chaired by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, with all heads of tertiary institutions in attendance.

The meeting will chart policy directions for the nation’s tertiary institutions, set admission guidelines and make a holistic review of application statistics, performance as well as evaluate admission exercise.

When asked if the board would be meeting on July 21 and the topics for discussion, Fabian said, “Yes, admissions and benchmarks will be discussed.”

No fewer than 1,761,338 candidates registered for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and Direct Entry Examination.

The board noted that only 1,671,203 results out of the 1,707,626 candidates who sat for the examinations were released.

The statistics indicated that 27,105 results would be subjected to further screening.

The board said 69 results were withheld while 1,783 candidates are to be rescheduled to write as a result of biometric challenges.