The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has withdrawn licences from 11 Computer-Based Centres (CBTs), for charging candidates unreasonably high amount in the ongoing 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the board, said this in Abuja on Tuesday at an interactive session with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), banks, E-transact, Digital Partner Network, Interswitch, and other service providers.
The Registrar listed some of the affected centres as Federal Polytechnics, Mubi, Adamawa; Adazi-Nnukwu ICT/CBT for selling forms at N5,000; Emkenlyn Computers, Nneameka Secondary School Anambra.
Others are New Kings and Queens Bayelsa for selling at N5,500; Brightfield Secondary School Delta for selling between N6,000 and N8,000; A-Pagen Consolidated Port Harcourt for selling at N5,000 and Influential School Port Harcourt for selling at N6,000.
JAMB had fixed the cost of e-PIN for registration for N3,500 and the cost of materials for N500 while N700 for the computer-based test (CBT) centres – totalling N4,700.
Oloyede said the board discovered that some of the centres were selling the e-PIN for as high as N8, 000.
The Registrar said charging above the stipulated N4,700 for the 2020 UTME registration was illegitimate and would only destroy the nation; as it was an act of fraud and corruption.
He said: “Many people make illegitimate money from the examination and we will be destroying the nation, if we don’t get things right.
“Prior to 2018, we sell form for N5,000; but the Federal Government considers so many things and felt the money was much and in 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari decided that the cost should be slashed; which brought the cost to N3,500.
“Also, prior to this time, there were unscrupulous people selling as high as N10,000. We now democratised the sale of the forms, to make it available so that it will not be possible for those selling to hoard the forms.
“We felt the banks are overcrowded so we decided to expand the sale outlet, to bring in mobile money operators to cover all the registered banks.
“The effects of the expansion is that some people are still penetrating the banks, thereby increasing the cost of the sale of form.”
The Registrar said the proliferation of tutorial centres was a major concern as most of the centres engaged in fraud and corruption during registrations and examinations.
In his remarks, the Commandant-General of NSCDC, Abdullahi Muhammadu, urged the board to limit the tutorial centres in the country.
Muhammadu urged the board to make sure that lists of certified tutorial centres were revealed to reduce infractions as it relates to examinations.
He called on commandants in the various states to make integrity their watchword in order not to betray the confidence the board has in them as well as Nigerians.
