The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has attributed the decline in the revenue it generated from the sale of forms for the 2021 Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examinations and the Direct Entry Examinations to the mandatory submission of National Identification Number for the registration process.
It noted that the NIN requirement made it difficult for some prospective candidates to register, thereby resulting in the reduction in the number of registered candidates and the proceeds generated from sales of forms.
The board’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said this during an interview with PUNCH on Sunday.
According to PUNCH, JAMB generated N5,887,628,900 from the sale of forms for the 2021 UTME/DE.
The figure is lower than the N6,563,086,710 the board generated from forms in 2020.
In response to a question on the reason for the fall in revenue generated from the forms, Benjamin said, “Last year, we had over two million candidates who registered for the examinations, both the UTME and DE. But this year, we are talking about between 1.3 million and 1.4 million. We know factors such as the introduction of the NIN to the registration process were responsible.
“From the information on ground, the NIN did not make lots of candidates register and you know before now we have been having cases of multiple registrations and that was why we brought in the NIN.”
The 2021 registration which started on April 10, 2021 ended on May 29,2021, though the board had disclosed its intention to give an extension to a few candidates with “special cases.”
