JAMB to enforce 16-year age limit as 201,867 register for UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is set to enforce the 16-year minimum entry age requirement into tertiary institutions, The Guardian can authoritatively report.

This is even as the examination body has announced that 201,867 candidates successfully registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) within the first week of registration.

In its weekly bulletin published on Monday, the Board disclosed that the enforcement of the minimum entry age requirement into tertiary institutions is, however, with a proviso that exceptional candidates may enjoy waivers, even if they are below 16 years, provided they score 80 percent in the four examinations stated in its advertisement.

According to the bulletin, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, stated this at a meeting with critical stakeholders comprising Chief External Examiners (CEEs), Chief Technical Advisors (CTAs), and Equal Opportunity Group (EOG). Other stakeholders included Virtues Vanguard, Peace Monitors, High-Power Opinion Leaders, Civil Society and Mass Media, General Monitors, Roving Group, and the Bwari Call Centre.

The meeting with the stakeholders was to prepare for the 2025 UTME registration exercise, review past performances, and discuss issues regarding the upcoming 2025 UTME.

The Registrar pointed out that the national minimum admissible age is 16. As such, any candidate below 16 years by September 2025 would not be considered for admission.

“This is about complying with the law; age has a lot to do with maturity in terms of what you do. Age can’t be discarded. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be prescribing that before you can become a Local Government Chairman, you must have attained a certain age, or even a child of 5 or 10 years could aspire to that office.

“Biological age has a lot to do with the development of intelligence. There are so many things that have been said, but there are exceptions to the rule, and you must allow for such exceptions.

“The Honourable Minister of Education mentioned it clearly when he assumed office that the minimum age for admission would be 16, but we are also aware that there are gifted children, and they are few. These gifted children can’t be dismissed like that. We will have to identify them and allow them to take the exam.

“Now, the question is about identifying them. There are so many criteria we’ll look at if you’re under sixteen and you’re exceptional. First, your records should show that you’re exceptional. If you take UTME, for instance, and you score 200 out of 400, how do you call yourself an exceptional candidate? But if you score 80 percent, that is giving us a signal that, ‘Oh, this person is really exceptional’.”

He said that any exceptional candidate must be exceptional not through mere words but in all ramifications such that, either in the UTME, WAEC, Post-UTME, or the GCE O/level, he must score at least 80 percent.

The examination body also revealed that it has paid N141 million to Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres for the registration conducted within the period.
The Guardian reports that the UTME registration, which began on February 3, is expected to end on March 8, 2025.