The new registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Segun Aina, has decided to build on the reforms that transformed the examination body over the past decade. Arriving with a vision for a technology-driven, candidate-centred admissions system, he deserves the support of all stakeholders. Nigeria’s tertiary admissions process still imposes unnecessary anxiety and cost on millions of young people every year.

The success of his vision should go beyond technology alone, no matter how sophisticated. JAMB has already demonstrated it can do things right. Now it must strive to become even better, delivering an admissions system that is more transparent, accountable, secure, compassionate and predictable.

The Board has come a long way from when it was in the news for allegations of financial opacity and administrative inefficiency rather than for the excellent discharge of its core functions. That narrative changed significantly through reforms by the immediate past registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, whose adoption of fiscal discipline, computer-based testing and enhanced biometric verification, among others, shored up public confidence in the agency.

Public institutions improve when successive leaders take the wiser path of improving existing structures rather than discarding them just to make a statement that they also left their own imprint. Aina has shown an understanding that institutions are built incrementally.

The registrar has presented his strategic blueprint titled “JAMB 2031: Building Trust, Reducing Trauma,” unveiling an ambitious five-year reform agenda designed to make the admission process more transparent, technology-driven and candidate-friendly. His choice of the word “trauma” is instructive.

Millions of candidates and their parents are often emotionally exhausted and confused as they travel long journeys to accredited centres or face verification requirements. For many, struggling under economic hardship, these are burdens they need not pile upon their sufferings. It is for such encumbrances that technology exists — and the registrar has acknowledged that the work of deploying it remains unfinished.

Aina’s vision of a fully paperless administration, alongside a unified mobile application and a centralised customer service platform, is to Nigerians more than a technological upgrade. It offers a new relationship between young citizens and a public institution that touches their lives yearly. Yet, care must be taken to make such laudable digital transformation achieve the desired objectives. Technology need not be courted like fashion labels. Online procedures mean little if they become cumbersome or if candidates encounter delayed responses or confusing instructions.

More than the public praise they generate, the end point of digital innovations by any government lies in their ability to simplify complications. They are as good as the number of steps they reduce when citizens seek accelerated processing or the automation of routine verification. They must improve communication and cut down on unnecessary human discretion. JAMB’s ambition to go paperless will therefore be assessed through the lived experience of parents and candidates, whether completing tasks has become faster and less stressful than before.

The increasingly sophisticated nature of examination malpractice justifies the Board’s commitment to strengthening technology. Cheating used to consist largely of copying answer sheets. Fraudsters, however, have tapped into technological advancements to power their devious enterprise. More than 4,200 cases involving fingerprint manipulation, popularly described as finger blending, were reportedly uncovered following investigations into the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, alongside about 190 instances of artificial intelligence-assisted impersonation.

The irony is that the same technological advances that public institutions, like JAMB, are courting for legitimate purposes, are being deployed by cheats. The Board must do everything possible to win this ‘arms race’ with continuous innovation and upgrades and remain a step ahead of would-be fraudsters.

Public confidence will not rest solely upon assurances by the examination body. The world has come a long way from the age of floppy disks into sophisticated digital fraud, cyber threats and data breaches. Independent verification is therefore indispensable, as are internationally recognised information security standards. Aina’s proposal for an independent review of JAMB’s technology infrastructure and the pursuit of ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Certification can reassure the public that sensitive data can be managed according to globally accepted practices.

JAMB will also have to follow through with greater openness about its operations. It stands to earn credibility when it explains itself before suspicion arises. Not after a controversy. It should be willing to publish audit summaries and performance reports at intervals, alongside the statistics of complaint resolution and service delivery.

Millions of young Nigerians encounter their first direct interaction with the Federal Government through JAMB. The experiences they take away inevitably shape their perceptions about their country. Aina’s tenure will do well to ensure that every candidate is treated as a citizen pursuing legitimate aspirations, not just another number on the board’s register.

As JAMB pursues its reform agenda, the new leadership must take into cognisance Nigeria’s digital divide. It must aim to narrow the inequalities that have left many candidates at the mercy of the high cost of mobile data, unreliable electricity, weak internet connectivity and limited digital literacy. Its paperless initiative should not create new forms of exclusion. Its mobile applications should be engineered to accommodate devices, whether basic or high-end, and consume minimal data.

JAMB can only do so much. Stakeholders in the admissions ecosystem, such as universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, must equally embrace reforms needed to eliminate the frustrations that attend tertiary admissions. Their administrative processes should align with the board’s efforts towards modernisation. After the examination body has done its best, the responsibility to ensure speedy admissions and verification falls on their shoulders.

Nigeria has a lot of experience conducting large-scale examinations. With the potential of Aina’s vision, JAMB can become Africa’s most trusted and innovative admissions institution. It will also strengthen public confidence in merit and restore the faith of Nigerians in public administration. This milestone, however, will be dependent not on technological exploits alone. It will require accountability and a commitment to fairness. It will also demand a genuine commitment to transparency and security.