THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that the total number of candidates that registered for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) increased largely due to the fee slashed by the Federal Government from N5,000 to N3,500.
The board also disclosed that it had received no fewer than 93,748 applications from candidates seeking admission into universities in the country through the 2019 Direct Entry (DE) admission.
This was contained in the JAMB’s Weekly Bulletin made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday by the board’s Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin.
A total of 1,881,488 candidates registered to sit for the 2019 UTME, with the hope of getting admission into various tertiary education institutions in the country, while the number of registered candidates in 2018 was 1.6 million.
JAMB noted that most of the candidates interviewed confirmed that the reduction of the registration by the Federal Government encouraged them to register for the examination.
The board, which stated that Direct Entry application is for admission into second year for first degree programme in university, said only candidates with relevant qualification would be considered for admission.
Parts of the bulletin read: “At the close of the sale of e-PIN on Thursday 21st February, one million, eight hundred and fifty five thousand, six hundred and thirty three (1,855,633) candidates had registered (for UTME) and 93,748 for DE application.
“A total of 55,214 candidates who purchased the e-PIN on the last day were allowed to register before the close of registration on Monday 25th of February, 2019.
“At the close of registration on Monday 25th February, 2019, one million, eight hundred and eighty-one thousand, four hundred and eighty-eight (1, 881,488) registered for the 2019 UTME.
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“In the 2016 UTME before Professor Ishaq Oloyede assumed duty (as JAMB’s registrar), the board registered 1,592,462. An increase of 129,774 candidates was recorded in 2017 UTME as the board registered 1,722,236 candidates.
“In 2017, the board introduced innovation such as profile creation to modification of biometric capturing already in existence in the registration process to eliminate all forms of impersonation.”
On candidates with biometric challenges in this year’s registration exercise, the board said before the close of the registration, about 50 candidates whose fingers could not be captured were invited from across the country to its headquarters in Abuja but only 22 reported for capturing.
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