Use of NIN Exposes over 500,000 Fake UTME Candidates – JAMB

The use of the National Identity Number (NIN) in registering for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has exposed the yearly humongous fraud committed by candidates, according to Professor Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Oloyede who stated this in Enugu, said NIN reduced examination malpractice this year.

“We were talking about the bogus 2.2 million candidates. But it has become clearer that more than 500,000 of such number are fake and duplications.

“And we were able to detect this through NIN and now we have realistic number of JAMB candidates,” the registrar said.

This year JAMB registered 1,415,501 candidates for the UTME 2021.

So far, 1,122, 095 had taken the examinations, while 66,111 had yet to take.

According to Oloyede, the board used 650 examination centres across the country, out of which, 30 centres have been delisted for performing below standard.

“53 centres are currently under watch while 600 of them performed excellently.

Oloyede frowned at the activities of saboteurs.

But they were all caught due to the system put in place.

He added that those students who visited a particular centre but could not write the examination would be rescheduled and new date fixed.

“Apart from registration fee, we did not collect any other money from candidates, but some pay as far as N25,000 to some elements to help them.

“Even some parents were paying N1,000 to somebody who did not finish primary six to help their children, but they will surely pay for it because we will delist them,” he said.

The registrar noted that the security situation in the Southeast was not as media and social media projected it.

“I came here myself with four directors and nothing has happened to us.

“I want to commend the media for their criticism and support which made the 2021 UTME successful,” Oloyede said.