2022 UTME: JAMB Moves To Curb Extortion Of Candidates, Introduces Cashless Registration

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said that it will adopt a cashless policy in the registration process for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as a way to curb extortion of candidates.


Accordingly, the Board said 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.This new policy was made known in a weekly bulletin of the Board obtained, on Monday, in Abuja.


JAMB explained that the money due to each registration centre would be remitted to relevant bank accounts on a weekly basis or any time frame acceptable to the centre owners.


It 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 stipulated fee.“


This laudable step was borne out of a painstaking review of the entire UTME registration process which has revealed some unethical and unacceptable practises by many Computer-Based Testing (CBT) centres.”


It is to be noted that these centres are allowed to collect only seven hundred naira (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 hapless candidates are extorted, 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,” JAMB said.Recall that in the previous years, candidates pay the sum of N700 at the centres. However, with the new policy, candidates simply walk into any registration centre and register without paying anything as the fee hitherto payable to the centre had been paid along with the cost of obtaining the e-PINS.