The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it will not release the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results immediately, unlike it did in 2017.

The examination is scheduled to begin on Friday, March 9, to March 17.

The registrar of the board, Ishaq Oloyede, said this during a press conference titled “Conduct of the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination” in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to the registrar, the reason for the delay in releasing the results is to review the activities of the candidates and to minimise the number of cancellations.

“We want to monitor everything that happens through our CCT cameras. Last year, we proved a point that there is nothing extraordinary in the immediate release of results but we had to cancel some results when we found out what happened in some centres. So, if we have to take two or three days to look at the conduct of the candidates before releasing the result so as to minimise cancellation, then we will do so”, he said

Mr. Oloyede said no computer-based centre is allowed to collect any cash from the candidates adding that the board will release the agreed sum of N600 per candidate due to the centres to them.

He also said the board will not relent in its effort to tackle examination irregularities.

“It is fraudulent to engage in multiple registrations, although the new system of capturing live pictures through cameras instead of scanning of pictures, biometrics capturing of fingers and the order of arrangement of names has curtailed incidences of multiple registration”, he said

The registrar urged candidates to adhere strictly to the date and time allocated to them for examination. He said any candidate who fails to turn up on schedule for his or her examination automatically misses the examination.

“The board is worried about the incessant cases of candidates being defrauded by syndicates, during the registration period. We arrested some of these syndicates. We call on all of you to be on the watch and call on us where such in formation is made available to you”, Mr. Oloyede said.

Mr. Oloyede said his ambition is to sanitise the system. He said the board will not hesitate to deal with anyone trying to ”cheat the system or the candidates”.

“About 6500 permanent and ad-hoc staff are deployed for the examination and each centre is to be manned by 10 officials. It is necessary to disclose that the board has concluded all arrangement for its activities for the 2019 exercise and a calendar has been released on our site”, the registrar added.

Similarly, in a statement issued on Wednesday, the board gave the statistics of applicants for 2018 UTME.

According to the board, a 1,662,762 candidates registered for the 2018 UTME within a period of of two months as against 1,718,425 candidates who registered within one month ”with an extension of two weeks” in 2017.

The board said the figure for 2018 shows a decrease of 55,642 applicants, which represents a decrease of 3.2 per cent.

(***PREMIUM TIMES’ calculation however indicates a decrease of 55663 applicants which represents about 3.3 per cent***)

The board said findings also revealed that the drop in the 2018 UTME is due to ”measures put in place by the board to forestall multiple registrations and other unwholesome registration practices by candidates”.

The board presented the tables showing the total number of top 10 applications by states of origin of the candidates.

S/NSTATETOTAL
1IMO. 928902
OYO. 866953
OSUN. 860444
OGUN. 803715
DELTA. 800526
ANAMBRA 727477
EDO. 664378
KADUNA 658819
KANO. 6472310 ONDO. 63894

Below is the total number of 10 lowest application made by state of origin of the candidates.

STATE. TOTAL
1BAUCHI 248392
TARABA 223233
ADAMAWA 221844
BAYELSA 193885
JIGAWA 183346
YOBE 155027
KEBBI 153198
SOKOTO 134569
ZAMFARA 1007710
FCT 6418

Below is the statistics of admissions in the last 10 years according to the board.

YEAR NUMBER 2008. 3618052
2009 4098883 2010. 4441654 2011. 4422695 2012. 4467066 2013. 5132077 2014. 4670748 2015. 5228569 2016. 56092510 2017 550,357+

The 1,662,762 candidates will be writing the examination across the country in 605 centres.