The registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde has disclosed that about 64,000 candidates have so far been offered admission into tertiary institutions of their choices by the board, this year.
Ojerinde said this at the second combined technical committee meeting on admissions to degree-awarding institutions, national diploma (ND), Nigeria certificate in education (NCE) and national innovation diploma (NIDA)-awarding institutions, held at the University of Ilorin, yesterday.
He said their admission letters were ready on the internet, “but the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) is trying to increase the current capacity of some universities. By the time NUC finishes investigation and accreditation, we are hopeful that more people will still go to university.
“About 98,000 candidates applied to the University of Lagos this session, though only 59,000 scored 200 and above point.”
The JAMB boss further stated that the board had about 500,000 spaces for candidates in all the tertiary institutions across the country and added that the board was planning to license cyber café operators in Nigeria to prevent its candidates from being exploited during Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) registration exercise.
He added that the board was already holding meetings with legitimate cyber café operators, and stressed that the effort was to safeguard the interest of JAMB’s candidates.
“Some of the cyber café operators exploit these candidates. Some take as much as N7500 to register them. What is more, they even give them fake registration. In Abuja last year, about eight candidates came to examination hall with fake registration details, which unfortunately disqualified them from taking the examination.
Thank God we had the biometric exercise where they thumb printed and the rightful people came out.
“If we can solve that problem by licensing cyber café operators it will be better for the candidates. What we are saying is that they should not go to cheats, we want to safeguard the interest of the Nigerian child,” Ojerinde explained.
Earlier, the chairman, governing board of JAMB, Prof Sam Ukpabi, represented by a member of the board, Chief Adeniyi Falade said all admissions must end by November 25, this year.
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