Ahead of commencement of registration for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), said that candidates must use sim cards that has never been used for UTME registration.
It said that talks are on with the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isah Pantami, to grant a conditioned waiver to estimated 20 per cent of candidates without a sim card.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made the disclosure in Abuja, on Friday, during a virtual meeting with owners of Computer Based Test (CBT) Centres, service providers and other stakeholders to kickstart the 2021 UTME registration.
He said: “We have approached the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, and we are hopeful that we will be granted waiver with, of course, conditionalities which we must ensure the candidates meet.
“80 per cent of the candidates already have their number. We are talking of the 20 per cent, and if we are fortunate enough to secure the waiver of the minister through the NCC, we will ensure there’s full compliance to the conditions. It’s in our interest as a nation that those things that are put in place should be allowed to protect all of us.”
Meanwhile, Prof. Oloyede explained that the compulsory use of National Identity Number (NIN) for the registration for the 2021 UTME was to checkmate examination malpractices.
RHe said the directive was from the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, noting that the motive was also for security reasons.
He said: “We don’t even require the name of the candidate, just want the NIN. We will then do the needful to pull the data of the candidate and process it.”
Oloyede, thus, warned that no CBT is allowed to register candidates for NIN, noting that any centre found to engage in such act would be sanctioned, including JAMB accredited CBT centre that engaged as agent of NIMC in the enrollment of NIN.
While cautioning owners of CBT centres against examination malpractice, JAMB Registrar said all centres owned by the same owners of a centre caught in the moral act would be suspended.