The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has recorded 420,674 registrations for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this on Monday while speaking to journalists in Ilorin after monitoring some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in the Kwara State capital.

Mr Oloyede, a professor of Islamic Studies, expressed satisfaction with the registration process.

“Going round, I’m very proud of those on the fields, CBT centres, my staff and everyone involved. I think it’s better by far. People know we’ll not take anything less than standard and they’ve done very well. We also thank the security agencies. They’ve assisted us well”, he said.

He said the board expects about two million candidates to register for this year’s UTME. Over 1.9 million registered for UTME in 2024.

The JAMB-administered UTME registration began on Monday, 3 February and continues until Saturday, 8 March. The UTME is a computer-based entrance examination for candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions.

This year, only candidates above the age of 16 are eligible to register, following the Minister of education, Tunji Alausa’s directive that tertiary institutions only admit candidates above the age of 16.

JAMB, however, allowed underage candidates to register for a mock-UTME this year before they are eligible for the actual UTME in subsequent years.

According to Mr Oloyede, 124,632 candidates have registered for the mock UTME.

Mr Oloyede also noted that the board has blacklisted six persons from participating in the UTME for life.

He said the affected persons were caught in alleged exam malpractice, adding that “we have their particulars and one senior university official is being prosecuted for exam related crime, others are under investigation.”