UTME: National Identification Number eliminates multiple registrations – JAMB

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has restated that the introduction of the National Identification Number (NIN) in the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise eliminated multiple registrations, application, impersonation and other malpractices associated with the examination.

Jamb re-affirmed that the importance of the partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) which mandated the use of NIN in the registration process made it impossible for examination mercenaries to register multiple times as the board had recorded previously.

The Head Media and Publicity of the Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in a statement countering media report that claimed that the introduction of NIN affected the revenue of JAMB and was responsible for the drop in its revenue to N5.8 billion, maintained that JAMB is neither a revenue generation agency nor purported to be one.

“JAMB is not a revenue generation entity and, as such, is not interested in the ever-ballooning number of candidates. Rather, JAMB is concerned with how to address loopholes being used by fraudsters to distort national data in a bid to compromise public examinations,“ Fabian said.

“As far as the Board is concerned, having a realistic number of candidates sitting its examination is a major achievement which only the partnership with NIMC has made possible. It’s our resolve not to ever compromise on the integrity of its processes on account of generating fat operating surpluses,” he added.

Fabian maintained that NIN was a good initiative saying it sanitized the system and restored its credibility.

The Jamb Head Media insists that “it’s an error of fact to denigrate the contribution of NIN to the UTME registration process by insinuating that it had a deleterious effect on the financial base of the Board when in actual fact, the board is neither a revenue generation agency nor purported to be one.

“On the contrary, the Board greatly appreciates the partnership with NIMC which has led to the inadvertent benefit of revealing the actual number of candidates registered annually.”

He stated that the Board was pleased to be vindicated in its belief all along that the huge number of candidates applying for UTME every year could not be realistic especially when seen against the backdrop of WAEC candidates which is always around the figure recorded by the Board this year.

“Consequently, it’s the Board’s firm belief that the introduction of NIN has helped in addressing one of the fundamental channels of perpetrating examination malpractice by way of multiple applications, among others.”

PIAK