The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says 700,000 candidates have so far been registered for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) nationwide in two weeks.
The Board’s Head, Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, made this known in an interview with Akelicious in Lagos on Sunday night.
According to him, the exercise has been hitch-free, with impressive turnout from the first day at the various accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide.
“I will like to say we have actually found this exercise very interesting as we have already registered a total of 700, 000 prospective candidates for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in just 14 days.
“We have 21 days left to go for this registration exercise and we wish to call on all candidates, the UTME and Direct Entry, to seize the opportunity and register, as there will be no extension.
Benjamin noted that the Board had blacklisted 41 centres out of the 692 centres used, over issues such as registration cyber fraud, extortion and technical deficiency.
He warned parents not to also give in to any form of extortion.
“It has come to the knowledge of the Board that some elite schools are using the name of the Board to extort huge sum of money from parents under the guise that the Board has ordered such payments.
“The Board wishes to make it clear that unlike the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and others, the UTME and the Direct Entry (DE) registration and examination exercises are not school-based.
“As such, schools have no role whatsoever in the Board’s operational processes.
“This is because these exercises require only the participation and engagement of individual candidates.
“Consequently, schools that are using the name of the Board to swindle parents of large sum of money for the purpose of registration or other services, are hereby warned to desist forthwith,” he said.
