Chidimma UCHEGBU
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said there is no truth in claims that it has increased the registration fee for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) across the country.
Speaking in a statement signed by JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor (PCA), Fabian Benjamin, the board said there was no such increase.
The statement reads: “The attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been drawn to several publications in recent times insinuating that the Board has increased its examination registration fee.
“This is far from the truth as the cost of obtaining the Board’s UTME application documents remains N3,500, which has been the cost of its application documents since it was brought down from N5,000 in 2018. Therefore, the Board wishes to state that the cost of application documents price has not been increased in spite of the prevailing economic reality in the country which has also affected the cost of the Board’s operations.
“Consequently, the Board wishes to assure the general public that the Board has been doing all within its powers to ensure that candidates are not overburdened in any way. One of these measures is to deliberately keep costs low hence its decision to make available its Use of English reading text free of charge through a QR code to ensure that the increase in cost of production is not passed to candidates. Therefore, all UTME candidates would access the reading text free of charge through multiple channels, which include their profiles, e-mail addresses, notification slips and the Board’s website.
“It is, however, pertinent to state the fact that what is being perceived in some quarters as an increment in its fees is nothing other than the fallout of its cashless policy through which all fees payable by candidates to CBT centres have been consolidated and are paid along with their application fees to prevent their wanton exploitation by unscrupulous centre owners. These fees are in turn remitted to partnering centres every week. For instance, candidates are expected to pay N700 for registration, N1500 as examination fees and N1500 for the optional Mock-UTME at privately – owned centres.
“It is also worthy to note that the Board had been resisting the call by its partnering and privately-owned centres for a drastic increase in the cost of the services they render to the candidates as a consequence of the current economic situation to which the Board has always maintained that its services are not for profit.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the 2024 UTME/DE e-PIN remains N3500. The registration fee of N700, which is to be paid to CBT centres by candidates, is now to be collected by the Board along with N1500, which is the cost for sitting the main UTME, and N1500 as the cost of the optional Mock-UTME etc is to be collected by the Board on behalf of the CBT centres.”
