UTME Scores Alone Don’t Guarantee Admission – JAMB
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has drawn a firm line between his agency and Nigeria’s established examination councils, insisting that the board exists to place candidates in tertiary institutions rather than to test them, and cautioning that the national obsession with high Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores has distorted public understanding of its true mandate.
Oloyede made the clarification on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, at the maiden Rite Foods National Academic Excellence Awards held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, where seven undergraduates each received N5 million, totalling N35 million. The beneficiaries were drawn from the country’s six geopolitical zones, alongside a recipient from JAMB’s Equal Opportunity Group for candidates living with disabilities, with the winners selected on a combined aggregate of O’Level results, UTME scores and Post-UTME performance.
“We conduct exams, but we are not an examination company. You cannot say the University of Lagos is an examination body because it conducts examinations. The same way, JAMB conducts exams, but JAMB is not an examination body,” he said. Drawing a comparison with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO), he added, “If you want to know what an examination body is, look at WAEC or NECO. Their names clearly show they are examination bodies. JAMB is an educational assessment body, and its goal is admission, not examination.”
The registrar argued that admission turns on more than a single score. “There is a hype about UTME in Nigeria. People believe it is the golden key to tertiary institutions. It is not so,” he said, warning that “many people have high scores but do not have the required subject combinations or qualifications for admission. That is why celebrating UTME alone can be misleading.” He described the board as a clearing house that ensures fair placement based on merit and institutional requirements.
His position lands against a backdrop of intense pressure on the admission system. A record 2,030,627 candidates registered for the 2025 UTME, and of the results processed that year, over 1.5 million scored below 200 out of 400, with only about 12,400 candidates, roughly 0.63 per cent, scoring 300 and above. Demand climbed further in 2026, with JAMB recording 2,295,877 total registrations, even as Nigeria’s universities, polytechnics and colleges of education can absorb an estimated 850,000 to one million students yearly, leaving a persistent gap of more than a million qualified applicants.
The distinction Oloyede pressed also echoes the board’s most turbulent recent chapter. During the 2025 exercise, JAMB admitted a technical failure that affected 379,997 candidates across 157 centres in Lagos and the five South-East states, prompting a resit and a rare tearful public apology by the registrar in May 2025. He maintained then, as now, that the UTME is a placement test meant to rank candidates for limited slots rather than a verdict on intelligence.
For the 2026/2027 admission cycle, stakeholders at JAMB’s annual policy meeting fixed 150 as the minimum benchmark for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education, underscoring that entry remains a multi stage process. Rite Foods Managing Director, Seleem Adegunwa, said the company would commit at least N35 million yearly to the scheme, while the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, represented by his aide, Dr Ismaila Adiatu, urged the awardees to pursue research, innovation and enterprise. Oloyede said the board would keep stressing its identity as an admission focused agency, noting that clearer public understanding is central to easing misconceptions around the UTME.