JAMB blames NIN requirement as 2021 revenue drops by N675m against 2020

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has blamed the drop in the revenue from the 2021 form sales for its Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examinations (UTME) and the Direct Entry (DE) exams on its introduction of the national identification number (NIN) requirement.

As reported under the financial inflow column of the board’s weekly bulletins for April and May 2021, JAMB generated N5,887,628,900 from the sale of forms for the 2021 UTME/DE.

The figure realised is lower than the N6,563,086,710 the board generated from the same forms in 2020.

According to PUNCH, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s press director, said the NIN requirement made it impossible for some prospective candidates to register, leading to the reduction in the number of registered candidates and the proceeds generated from sales of forms.

“Last year, we had over two million candidates who registered for the examinations, both the UTME and DE,” Benjamin said.

“But this year, we are talking about between 1.3 million and 1.4 million. We know factors such as the introduction of the NIN to the registration process were responsible.

“From the information on ground, the NIN did not make lots of candidates register and you know before now we have been having cases of multiple registrations and that was why we brought in the NIN.”

JAMB’s 2021 registration had started on April 10 and ended on May 29, 2021. The board had stated that it would only give an extension to a few candidates who encountered certain hurdles in their registration process.

At least 1,338,687 candidates registered for the UTME in 2021 while 75,328 registered for the DE exam.

The figures realised are in sharp contrast with the estimated total of over two million registered candidates recorded in 2020.