2025 UTME: We will go tough on underage applicants – Oloyede

Ish’aq Oloyede, the registrar and chief executive officer at The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has threatened to impose sanctions on underage applicants participating in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration.

Oloyede, made this declaration while monitoring the registration process at various Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres recently.

He expressed concern over the rising number of underage candidates, warning that they may face penalties for misusing the opportunity given to exceptionally brilliant students below the age of 16.
Oloyede revealed that out of the 780,202 candidates registered so far, a staggering 11,512 applicants are underage.

“We expected around 30 to 40 underage applicants, but what we have now is shocking. Today alone, we registered 18,813 candidates, and 443 of them are underage,” he said.

Read also: 2025 UTME: JAMB gives 320 benchmark score for U-16 candidates

The former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin lamented that the provision for highly gifted students has been abused, with many parents rushing their children into the system without ensuring they meet the required academic and mental readiness.

He warned that underage candidates who fail to meet expectations will face penalties.

“We will impose some other penalties on them. It would have been better for them to wait for their time because they are going to waste their money,” he stated.

He revealed that the board is expecting a total of two million candidates for the 2025 UTME and that as of Friday, over 782,000 candidates have successfully registered.

“We still have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before we reach the two-week mark. By then, we would have exceeded one million registrations. The process has been smooth, and we are confident we will finish on time,” Oloyede assured.

With JAMB tightening its rules on underage candidates, parents are urged to ensure their children meet the minimum admission age requirement of 16 years before attempting to register for the UTME.