By Alade Adisa
“We will impose some other penalty on them, that it will have been better for them to have stayed for their time, because they are going to waste their money.” – Prof. Ishaq
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has announced that there will be strict penalties for underage candidates participating in the ongoing 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration.
While monitoring the registration process across various centers in Lagos on Friday, Oloyede revealed that out of the 780,202 candidates registered so far, 11,512 were underage.
He stated that although JAMB allows exceptionally brilliant students below the age of 16 to register, this provision has been abused.
“We will impose penalties on them, making it clear that waiting for their appropriate time would have been better. Many of them are simply wasting their money,” Oloyede said.
He further expressed concern over the growing number of underage applicants.
“By today alone, we have recorded 443 underage candidates. As of this morning, we have registered 18,813 candidates, and out of this number, 443 are underage. Initially, we expected around 30 to 40 underage candidates, but now we have 11,512, which clearly indicates a trend of deceit.”
No Extension for UTME Registration
The JAMB registrar also confirmed that the UTME registration has been seamless, and there will be no extension.
“An extension will not happen because there is no issue with the process. Students are registering daily, surpassing our initial projections. These students are set to proceed to universities.”
According to Oloyede, the board had initially planned for 60,000 daily registrations, but they have been exceeding that target since the third day of the exercise.
“This is the first time we are registering over 80,000 candidates daily. Yesterday, we registered close to 100,000 candidates across the country. Initially, we budgeted for 60,000 per day, but we have been recording between 80,000 and 90,000 daily.
This means we will complete the registration process well ahead of schedule. By Monday, which marks the 14th day of the five-week registration period, we would have surpassed 1 million registered candidates.”
Oloyede concluded by stating that the UTME registration process has been smooth and efficient, with no challenges that would warrant an extension.
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