JOHN ONAH, Abuja
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has withdrawn licences from 11 centres for charging candidates exorbitant amount in the ongoing 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) registration.
It would be recalled that the board had last week arrested some agents of an accredited online payment service for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for allegedly charging above the approved cost.
The board’s Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this to newsmen while monitoring the UTME/Direct Entry (DE) registration in Bwari, Abuja.
According to him, the agents, who worked for Unified Payments Services (UPS), charged some candidates the sum of N4,500, as against the approved cost of N4,000, for the registration.
The agents, operated in shops situated opposite JAMB Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre, Kogo in Bwari.
Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of the board, disclosed the withdrawal of the licences in Abuja previous day when he met with critical stakeholders to discuss way forward on the ongoing registration of UTME.
The stakeholders included the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC), Banks, E-transact, Digital Partner Network, Interswitch and other service providers.
Oloyede said that the proliferation of tutorial centres was a major concern as most of the centres engaged in fraud and corruption, during registrations and examinations.
According to him, 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 that the exorbitant amount could have negative effects on the nation as well as having effects in destroying the system.
“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,” he said.
Oloyede said that the board was magnanimous enough to pay the sum of N210 as commission for each of the forms sold, to about 2 million candidates nationwide, saying extorting the candidates was unjust.
He added that the board was working closely with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), to ensure that any agent who sold above the prescribed fee was brought to book.
He, therefore, called on NSCDC to assist in arresting any erring centre while also calling on candidates to report any centre involved in the act, to commandants in their various states.
He also said that the board, in a bid to eradicate the problems and as well as to ensure tracking, had directed its agents selling forms to ensure they have the National Identity Number (NIN).
The registrar listed some of the centres whose licences were withdrawn as: Federal Polytechnics, Mubi; Adamawa; Adazi-Nnukwu ICT/CBT for selling forms at N5,000, Emkenlyn Computers, Nneameka Secondary School Anambra.
Also blacklisted 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 Influencial School Port Harcourt, for selling at N6,000 among others.
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