JAMB gives tertiary institutions one-month ultimatum to declare all illegal admissions

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has given a one-month ultimatum to tertiary institutions to declare all their illegal admissions.

Fabian Benjamin, the board’s spokesperson, said all admissions conducted outside of JAMB’s central admission processing system (CAPS) must be declared in August 2024.

JAMB introduced CAPS in 2017 as an online portal to grant tertiary education admissions and ensure transparency.

Over one million discovered to have been admitted outside CAPS between 2017 and 2020 were regularised on a ministerial waiver.

JAMB had thereafter stated that it would “severely sanction” any vice chancellor, provost, or rector who admits students outside CAPS.

Benjamin said the board has resolved that it will no longer absorb illegal admissions, which typically have no JAMB registration number.

He said the window for mop-up of pre-2017 unregistered admissions has been on now for seven years and is now being abused.

The spokesperson said the JAMB has discovered unwholesome practice where institutions collude with candidates to falsify vital details.

He said these include backdated year of entry, subsequent age-adjustments, and the utilisation of certificates of genuine candidates with similar names to facilitate illegal admissions or participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

Benjamin said JAMB has decided that all institutions must disclose candidates who were admitted illegally prior to 2017 “now or never”.

He said this declaration must be done within one month “beginning from 1st August 2024”.

“Any admission purportedly given prior to 2017 will no longer be recognised or condoned unless disclosed within this one-month window,” he said.

“Institutions are advised to comply with this directive as there will not be any further condonement of hitherto unrecorded candidates who did not even register with JAMB not to talk of sitting for any entrance examination.

“This move is aimed at curbing illegal admissions and falsification of records, while ensuring compliance with the provisions of CAPS.”