Posted on: 09:18 Thu, 25 Feb 2016



The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says more than 1.85 million candidates applied for this year ‘s UTME on its Computer-Based Test (CBT) platform.

The board’s Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde,
announced this in a statement emailed to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

The statement said that this year’s figure was an improvement on the 1.47 million candidates who applied for the same examination in 2015.

It added that the figure for the 2016 UTME
showed an increase of 113, 673 applicants
against last year’s figure.

According to the statement, a total of 343
prison inmates nationwide will participate in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME).

It said that these inmates would also have
access to computers at both the Kaduna and Ikoyi prisons.

“The 2016 UTME will commence on Saturday, Feb. 27 and will last for about 14 days.

“It is, however, expected that all candidates
who were unable to conclude their registration
process as at Feb. 5, will seize the opportunity
of the 48 hours grace of the opening of the
portal to do so before mid-night of Feb. 25,” it
said.

The board pointed out that this did not include
fresh registration.

“The board wants to seize this opportunity to
clearly state that the Federal Ministry of
Education and JAMB will not be doing this
again and prospective future
candidates’registration will close as indicated in
our advertisement.”.

It noted that the board’s matriculations
examination has grown to be a “vitally
indispensable gateway” to tertiary institutions in
Nigeria with a great measure of performance
and integrity emulated globally.

The statement explained that this was inspite
of increasing number of candidates and other
challenges which the board’s management had
consistently addressed.

It said:”For purposes of clarity, let me remind Nigerians that, the first Joint Matriculation Examination (JME) was held in 74 towns in Nigeria and by a special request in Gambia, with a total number of 96,884 candidates tested.

“However, the challenges in the conduct of
examination became enormous as the number of candidates increased.

“Question papers were printed flown into
Nigeria and transported in trailers escorted by
security agents to the Board’s office.

“The distribution of the materials to the various
examination towns was also done largely by air,
road and so on.

“Materials were stacked up in large cartons and
distributed to states from where they were
conveyed in vehicles to the custodians.

“This was the story of the board. Today, the
Computer Based Test (CBT) has erased all this
hurdles and ensures that the system is
seamless.

“And we call on Nigerians to continue to
support the board in this drive to return the
glory of Nigerian education when it was placed
far above foreign education.”

According to the statement, in the board’s
effort to maximize the few spaces in the
country’s tertiary institutions informed the
redistribution of candidates in the last
admission exercise.

It noted that the policy was grossly
misunderstood even though the candidates
were those that were “not admitable” based on
the prevailing guidelines.

The statement however, said that the board
had fine-toned the policy by introducing
another choice after the preferred among the
schools that are under-subscribed.

It said it would enable the candidates take up a
second opportunity if they fail to get their first
preferred choice.

” Again, let me use this opportunity to explain
the misconception about cut-off points.

“First the cut-off point is not set by the board,
but by the policy committee chaired by the
Honourable Minister of Education with the
board, Vice-Chancellors, Provost of Education,
Rectors of Polytechnics, Monotechnics etc.

“The 180 cut-off point is a minimum
requirement and not an indication that one is
admissible.

“Other factors and criteria of admissions will
also follow in arriving at what constitute
admissible cut-off point.

” Nigerians should also note that institutions
are at liberty to go higher than 180 depending
on their peculiarity and this does not in anyway
infringe on the powers of the board,” the
statement added.

It said that statistics taken by the board had
shown that Imo had the highest number of
applicants for the 2016 exercise, while the
Federal Capital Territory had the least with a
total of 5, 069 applicants.

It further said that this year’s examination
would hold simultaneously in 521 centres in
Nigeria and eight foreign centres including
Accra, Buea in Cameroun and Cotonou in
Republic of Benin.

The statement listed others as London, Jeddah
in Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia, Johannesburg in
South Africa, Addis in Ethiopia and Abidjan in
Cote d’Ivoire.

It said that visually Impaired candidates were
expected to take the examination at designated
centres in all the state capitals and the FCT.

It noted that a total of 201 visually impaired
candidates would also be participating in this
year’s examination nationwide.

“It is the board’s desire to ensure that no
candidate is deprived of the examination.

“The examination will be conducted using the Braillenote Apex Computers for the visually impaired candidates in order to give them the opportunity to pursue their dreams academically.(NAN)