Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has called for radical and urgent interventions to curb the rising wave of sophisticated digital examination fraud in Nigeria.

JAMB warned that the trend can cause long-term damage to the country’s education system.

Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar, made this call during a recent event in Abuja, as reported in the JAMB Bulletin published Monday.

Oloyede described the evolving tactics employed by fraudsters during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as “worrisome, highly sophisticated, and capable of jeopardising national development.”

“Malpractice is not only compromising learning and research, it is endangering our collective future,” Oloyede warned.

“There is an urgent need for decisive action on these new and disturbing developments. The public must not treat this menace with levity.”

He lamented that instead of addressing the growing problem, “some people are dissipating their energies on spreading unhelpful conspiracy theories and hatred, while our future is being jeopardised by a new crop of sophisticated digital fraudsters.”

The registrar detailed how high-level examination malpractices were uncovered during the 2025 UTME, leading to the withdrawal of some results and the arrest of several culprits nationwide.

According to him, JAMB discovered that certain Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres and school proprietors had colluded with hackers to gain remote access to candidates’ systems and submit pre-programmed answers to local servers at compromised centres.

Oloyede also highlighted the use of AI-enabled photo blending to impersonate candidates, noting that many of the impersonators were current undergraduates. Other fraudulent tactics included:

He said they also include registration with combined fingerprints through the combination of fingerprints from multiple persons for a single candidate’s registration.

He cited the extension of local area networks from some dubious centres to remote “strong rooms” as well as the pairing of candidates with professional mercenaries to gain access to the examination hall.

He revealed that over 3,000 candidates have been identified as either accomplices or beneficiaries of these crimes, stressing that many of them are university students already enrolled in institutions.

9mobile, Nigerian operator, has reportedly gained approval for roaming on the MTN Nigeria network in a deal that some commentators suggest could improve its position in the market and, more specifically, tempt back lost subscribers.

After finally gaining regulatory approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), 9mobile plans to launch national roaming services on the MTN network from this month.

Under the agreement, 9mobile subscribers will gain access to MTN’s infrastructure for calls, texts and data in areas where 9mobile’s coverage is weak or unavailable.

For 9mobile, the deal offers a cost-effective way to expand coverage without the heavy investment required for nationwide infrastructure.

According to ITWeb Africa, the decision comes nearly five years after initial discussions – much longer than expected due, the Techloy news service said, to regulatory bottlenecks, shifting market conditions, and unclear execution timelines.

It may, however, prove pivotal for 9mobile, whose market share has dwindled to 1.72% in April 2025, down from 6.6% in 2020 when the proposal was first submitted. Indeed, in 2015 the company once known as Etisalat Nigeria had over 23 million subscribers and a 15.7% market share.

Of course, there’s also something in this for MTN. In exchange for network access, MTN gains utilisation rights to 9mobile’s underused spectrum in the 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 2100MHz bands – key frequencies for expanding coverage and improving data capacity.

For MTN, which serves over 84 million subscribers, this additional spectrum could reduce congestion and improve service quality.

The company has also had financial difficulties in the Nigerian market due to the naira’s substantial depreciation; this deal could support better service provision at a reduced cost.

That said, MTN Nigeria’s results for the first quarter to March 31 2025 were apparently much improved, and the company recently announced a massive capital expenditure drive for 2025 of some NGN900 billion (US$568.5 million) as it seeks to significantly enhance network service quality in major cities like Lagos and Abuja and extend improvements to other areas.

Banks and telecom companies will begin deducting USSD banking charges directly from customers’ airtime instead of their bank accounts beginning from today, June 3.

USSD, otherwise Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to interact with a mobile network operator’s computers.

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) announced this change in an e-mail message to customers, following a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Key details:

Each USSD session will cost ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, charged by your mobile network.

You will be asked to approve the charge before it’s deducted from your airtime.

If you prefer, you can use other banking channels like ATMs, mobile apps, or internet banking.

This change is part of a move to end the long-standing debt dispute between banks and telecoms over unpaid USSD fees.

As of late 2024, banks owed telecom companies ₦160 billion. For example, MTN was owed ₦42 billion by Nigerian banks.

By shifting USSD fees to customers’ airtime, the telcos aim to recover these debts and avoid future issues.