The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has explained that posting 2020 UTME candidates to CBT centres outside their immediate communities was a deliberate policy designed to curb coordinated examination malpractice.
Why JAMB Expanded Examination Towns
Speaking on Sunday during a webinar briefing with stakeholders following complaints from parents—such as a parent whose child selected Sagamu in Ogun State but was posted to Akute near Lagos—Prof. Oloyede explained the rationale behind the new grouping:
- Disrupting Group Registration Rings: In previous years, narrow examination towns made it easy for tutorial centres and syndicates to register candidates in bulk and pre-arrange collusion with specific CBT centres.
- Merged Exam Zones: To prevent this, JAMB merged neighbouring communities into broader examination zones (for example, grouping Lagos into six or seven broad exam towns, and linking Sagamu with Akute and Ajuwon).
What to Do If Your Fingerprint Fails Biometric Verification
Prof. Oloyede also reassured candidates whose fingerprints could not be captured by the biometric verification machine at their CBT centres not to panic:
- Candidates with genuine biometric verification failure will not be allowed to sit the exam unverified on that day, as no candidate is permitted to write without biometric clearance.
- Instead, proper documentation is taken at the centre so JAMB can make adequate provisions to ensure fair treatment for all affected candidates.
He added that over 90 percent of regular candidates nationwide will conclude their exams by Thursday, March 19, while candidates under the Equal Opportunity Group (such as visually impaired candidates) will write afterward.
Published by Mentra Academic Research
Every study guide, syllabus analysis, and timing breakdown is cross-checked against official examination criteria (JAMB UTME, POST-UTME, and WAEC) by subject matter specialists.
