The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has announced that exceptionally brilliant candidates below the age of 16 will now undergo four additional examinations before gaining admission into tertiary institutions.
Prof. Oloyede made this known during an inspection of Computer-Based Test (CBT) centers in Ilorin, Kwara State, where he emphasized that underage candidates must sign an indemnity letter before sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
He warned that those who failed to meet the required standards will face sanctions.”There are four examinations they will first of all face. Initially, we wanted to block under-16 candidates from writing the UTME”.
“But if you don’t give them the opportunity, how do you identify the exceptionally brilliant ones? That’s why we introduced the indemnity requirement,” he explained.
The JAMB Registrar revealed that 4,997 candidates below the age of 16 had registered as of Monday afternoon.
He criticized some parents for using their children to push selfish ambitions and reaffirmed JAMB’s commitment to a fair and transparent admission process.
In addition to the new policy, Prof. Oloyede warned CBT center operators against blank registrations, false allegations against JAMB, tampering with candidates’ profiles, and conducting unauthorized night registrations.
He disclosed that several centers had been sanctioned for malpractice, with responsible staff blacklisted from all JAMB-related activities.
During his tour, he also verified whether CBT centers had received their payments from the board.
Meanwhile, registration for the 2025 UTME, which began on February 3, is scheduled to close on March 8, 2025.
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