As the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has finally closed the registration process for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the Board said they registered a total of 1,595,779 candidates.
The 1,595,779 candidates registered for 2023 is lower than the forecast of 1.6 million for the entire exercise.
This number does not include the Direct Entry component of the exercise, which had commenced on Monday, February 20, 2023, before it was put on hold on Tuesday, February 21, 2023.
It will be recalled that the Board has granted an extension to accommodate those who could not register for the UTME 2023 within the mandated window of Saturday 14th January to Tuesday 14th February 2023, due to requirements related to recent developments in the country. Extension announced the previous week elapsed on Wednesday, 22 February, 2023.
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However, the council in its weekly newsletter showed that Lagos, Ogun and Oyo are among the states with the highest number of candidates registered.
According to JAMB, Lagos registered a total of 270,573 followed by Oyo 94, 911 and Ogun with 91,970 candidates at the close of the extended period of registration for the 2023 UTME registration exercise.
The performance of other states are Rivers 80,119; Kaduna 79,478; FCT-Abuja 76,132; Delta 61,718; Kano 52,790; Nasarawa 51, 289 and Kwara 49,365.
However, the Registrar’s monitoring team, which had gone round the country, was in Nasarawa and Delta states on the final day of the exercise to oversee its conclusion.
In Asaba, Delta State, the team visited Trinity Innovation Hub CBT Centre; Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku CBT Centre 1 and 2; Delta State Library CBT and others.
It was, however, remarkable that none of these centres had any candidates waiting to be registered, indicating that almost all candidates, who desire to register for the exercise, had done so.
The same situation was replicated in many centres in Nasarawa State as few candidates were seen at all the centres a day before the closing date and even these were cleared before the close of work.
The Board said from every indication, this year’s exercise is shaping up to be the smoothest the Board has ever had.
However, based on reports received from the various monitoring teams across the country, the Board would review its SIM number swap policy as it will now require the Telcos to confirm that the old SIM being put forward for swapping previously belonged to the applicant but had been issued to another person, which would, therefore, preclude the possibility of a SIM welcome back before such swapping would be approved.
