JAMB: Cyber cafes no longer allowed to do UTME registration

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will stop the use of cyber cafes for registration of candidates, starting from the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB registrar, said this on Thursday on the sideline of a meeting with proprietors of computer-based test (CBT) centres at the University of Lagos.

“We are no longer going to allow the cyber cafes to do the registration exercise for prospective candidates because they are extorting candidates and overcharging them,” he said.

“They also do services they do not have the capacity to do, coupled with the fact that there was no way of tracking them because they were not registered.

“Another major reason is the mix-up they create on the data of the candidates. Some will just ask the candidates to write their names and other details down for them.

“On accumulating such data, they now get all of them mixed-up, thereby creating problems for these candidates.

“We know there will be uproar because they make a lot of illegitimate money from these services, but we cannot leave the candidates at their mercy.

“Particularly when people will make noise that it is JAMB that was extorting them.”

The professor urged all prospective candidates to do their registration and access the board’s major services in any of its 718 accredited centres in the country.

Oloyede said the board would commence the sale of the registration form on January 3, 2019 and would span six weeks.

He assured that the 2019 elections will not affect the sale of forms, adding that the board had adjusted its examination schedule ahead of the election.

“We thank INEC for giving us an early notice and so, it is expected that the exercise will be hitch-free,” he said.