The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has announced that over 11,553 underage candidates have registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), as the registration process gains momentum.
During an inspection of approved computer-based test centres in Lagos on Friday, Oloyede shared that a total of 782,027 candidates have already registered in the past 10 days. While the target for this year’s registration is 2 million candidates, Oloyede revealed that the process is progressing smoothly, with expectations to reach 1 million registrations by the two-week mark.
“It’s been an efficient process so far. Today alone, 443 underage candidates were registered out of 18,813 candidates in total,” Oloyede said. He explained that JAMB has introduced a new system designed to track and identify underage candidates, helping to pinpoint any genuine exceptions, such as exceptionally gifted underage students.
Oloyede pointed out the growing trend of parents enrolling their children prematurely for the exam, often driven by external pressure or other reasons. While the registration system has made notable strides, it hasn’t been without challenges. He acknowledged some delays, attributing them to new technical measures being implemented this year to ensure a more thorough process. Despite some criticisms, Oloyede emphasized that the delays were being actively managed, and that candidates are expected to engage more fully in their own registration, rather than relying on others to complete it for them.
To prevent future issues, the board has also introduced new safeguards to ensure candidates read and understand important information during the registration process. “We’ve set a time limit to ensure candidates fully engage with the registration system, so they won’t be able to skip through it,” Oloyede explained.
Despite the occasional technical challenges, the process has exceeded expectations in terms of registration numbers. “We’ve been registering more than 80,000 candidates per day, even reaching close to 100,000 on some days,” Oloyede said. “At this pace, we will complete the registration process well ahead of the deadline.”
As of now, JAMB continues to make progress toward its goal of registering over 2 million candidates for the 2025 UTME, while also working to refine the process and ensure that all candidates adhere to the necessary regulations.
