The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has directed all prospective candidates who could not register for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)/ Direct Entry (DE) programme before the deadline of May 29 to visit any of its offices or owned Professional Test Centres (PTCs) across the country to obtain and complete a form at no cost.
The board said the alternative registration window is open to candidates with genuine proof(s) of failed efforts to register for the exams and will last from May 31 to June 15, 2021. This, it noted, is aimed at availing every prospective candidate the opportunity to still participate in the 2021 registration exercise.
JAMB had on Saturday, May 15, after a meeting with critical stakeholders as well as in response to the pressure from public-spirited individuals and groups, announced a two-week extension of the registration period for the 2021 UTME/DE from May 15 to May 29, 2021.
The extension was largely due to the difficulties encountered by candidates in generating their unique profile codes using their National Identification Number (NIN), network hitches, among others.
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In a statement by its spokesperson, Benjamin Fabian, JAMB expressed regrets that despite the extension there were still complaints of inability to register due to lateness or non-delivery of NIN verification code; inability to obtain NIN; mismatch or wrong names originally submitted to NIMC (and different from the ones being used for the JAMB registration), among others.
JAMB also regretted that from the time of extension, the number of registrants fell drastically until towards the new closing date.
“At the new closing day (29th May 2021), 1,383,420 candidates procured the PIN for registration, while 1,375,694 have completed their registration.
“While very few of such excuses have been found to be genuine, a large number is traceable to fraudsters who are hell-bent on subverting the system and bypassing the well thought-out decision of the Federal Government to make NIN a requirement for JAMB registration,” the board said.
It explained that further extension of the registration period was not feasible due to time constraints within the window available to it on the Annual National Examinations Timetable.
With this new development, JAMB therefore called on prospective candidates to do the following:
(a) Submit a certified bank draft of N4,000 only in favour of JAMB and obtain a signed duplicate copy from the office;
(b) Submit the completed form with a recent passport photograph at the same office of collection; collect a copy of the Reading Test;
(c) Await further directives through the registered phone number and Public Service Announcement through 9pm NTA Network News as soon as screening is completed.
“Anyone who submits another application after having successfully registered during the earlier registration period will have the two attempts disqualified,” JAMB said.
“Any false claim will attract severe sanctions, including forfeiture of the deposited bank draft, cancellation of application(s), prosecution, etc.
“Due to the fact that some parents and school proprietors have been found to mislead candidates for illicit gains and personal aggrandisement, the Board advises all to allow each candidate to personally go through the process. JAMB does not tolerate the involvement of any third party or group in the registration process,” it said.
