JAMB says no deadline extension for UTME registration

• Discloses 600,000 candidates so far registered
• ‘Thousands may not write examination in Cross River’

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has ruled out the possibility of extending the ongoing registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which is currently dogged by logistic crisis. It said it would work towards rectifying identified lapses.

JAMB’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, who stated this in a chat yesterday, expressed the hope that before the deadline for the end of registration, all prospective candidates would have concluded their registration exercise.

Benjamin’s declaration is coming against the backdrop of agitations from stakeholders and applicants on the board to extend the deadline beyond the stipulated date owing to difficulties in accessing JAMB website as a result of which many candidates were finding it difficult to register.

The Registrar, Prof. Is’hag Oloyede, yesterday in Abeokuta shortly after an inspection tour of JAMB registration centres in the town spoke in the same vein .

While acknowledging the logistic challenges, the spokesman, however, said that serious steps were being taken by the board to ensure the regulated platform could help candidates get registered before the end of the month and to prevent irregularities in registration.

He said some applicants were seeking extension of the UTME registration deadline due to irregularities in the ongoing registration process.

According to him, it is wrong for any person to also think that there is inadequacy in the number of centres stipulated to register candidates for the UTME.

“We have already registered 600,000 candidates since sales of form began March 20, how can there be inadequate centres or lack of manpower when we have more than 400 centres.

“There is no such delay as alleged by some candidates. The issue here is that plenty people are registering for the UTME at the same time. The Internet is working, if it is not working, how then we arrived at the total of 600,000 that have so far been duly registered.

“Large numbers of applicants seeking to register for UTME go to the banks allocated for the exercise, that is why there seems to be some form of delays and irregularities.

“Before, we used three banks and now it is 15 banks because the period is short,” he said.

In another development, thousands of prospective candidates may not write JAMB this year in Cross River State following the cumbersome and bureaucratic processes the intending candidates are experiencing.

It was learnt that on daily basis, intending candidates gathered in JAMB office, two other registration points, banks and business centres to process their registrations but just few succeeded marginally.

When The Guardian visited some of the centres, parents of candidates were seen hanging around trying to lobby for assistance for their children or wards.

Some of the prospective candidates described the new process as “failure and uncalled for”, adding that the former system of registration was more preferable and it saves time and money.