The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, has said agents helping the board to sell personal identification number, PIN, for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, have no reason to sell above the prescribed amount, as enough provisions have been made to adequately compensate them.
He stated this in Lagos on Tuesday while monitoring the registration exercise in some centres.
He added that as at last Friday, over N300 million had been paid out to the vendors as commission.
Oloyede, who announced the immediately suspension of two agents, Parkway Project and Digital Partners, for selling the PIN to applicants at rates higher than the approved N5,700, added that the Board would not condone extortion in any guise.
“Every agent is paid five percent of the whole amount charged, which is N5,700 and we are surprised that some are selling the PIN for N6,500 or more. That is unacceptable. Every Friday, we pay the agents their commission and as at last Friday, we have paid over N300 million to to them,” he said.
On the reduction of the number of CBTs by the Board, he explained that it would be better to have few centres helping to conduct the examination, than having large number that are substandard or aiding malpractice.
“The reduction in the number will not in any way hinder applicants from registering for the examination. We have made provisions to register at least 100,000 candidates daily and so far the highest figure we have got for a day is about 65,000. So, we have the capacity to register over 1.8 million candidates.
“As for writing the exam, there are enough provisions for all candidates to sit for it. If peradventure, an exam does not start one hour after the scheduled time, such will be cancelled. The operators of the centre would be in contact with us and before the candidates leave the venue, another day and time for the exam would be scheduled,” he explained.
He said as at Tuesday, 533,048 applicants had registered for the exam.
On why the Board reintroduced possessing personal electronic mail addresses by candidates as compulsory, Oloyede stated that it was to make Nigeria and Nigerians toe global trends.
“We stopped that some years ago because some agents were extorting candidates, but now enough steps have been taken to curtail that. Moreover, students who are passing out of secondary schools are old enough to have electronic mail addresses and it is cheaper to communicate with them through that medium than sending text messages,” he said.
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