BY TEMI OHAKWE, ABUJA – The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said that it will adopt a cashless policy in the registration process for 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This was as the Board declared that it generated N141.2 million between November 20 and 26, 2021
The Board explained that with the adoption of the new system, it would be collecting the approved N700 registration fee on behalf of the various Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centres along with its UTME registration fees.
It said the money due to each of the Registration Centres would be remitted to relevant bank accounts on a weekly basis or any time frame acceptable to the centre owners.
JAMB’s position was contained in its weekly bulletin issued on Monday and obtained by Forefront News in which the Board said its decision to go cashless in the UTME registration exercise would put an end to some of the fraudulent activities of some CBT Centres, who charge candidates above the stipulated fee.
JAMB further said; “This laudable step was borne out of a painstaking review of the entire UTME registration process which has revealed some unethical and unacceptable practices by many Computer-Based Testing (CBT) Centres.
“It is to be noted that these Centres are allowed to collect only N700 as registration charges but some fraudulent Centre owners misused that opportunity to engage in conduct unbecoming of respectable establishments as they indulge in massive extortion of candidates, among others, during the exercise.
“Consequently, the Board has resolved to henceforth make the UTME registration process cashless to put a stop to such acts of extortion.
“This intervention will block all loopholes through which helpless candidates are extorted by unconscionable service providers. This process will not, in any way, increase the cost of UTME registration which remains as it was in the previous year. As such, it is only the process of payment that has changed not the cost,” the Board said.
In the previous years, candidates paid N700 at the Centres but, with the new policy, candidates simply walk into any registration centre and register without paying anything as the fee hitherto payable to the Centres had been paid along with the cost of obtaining the e-PINS.
