The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has suspended the ongoing 2023 Direct Entry registration exercise till further notice.
JAMB’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocols, Dr Fabian Benjamin, who announced the suspension in a statement, said the exercise which commenced on Monday, 20th February, 2023, was suspended to enable the deployment of certain measures, which are designed to better serve prospective candidates.
The statement said “a new date and fresh registration procedures, which will include Upload of JAMB Admission Letter in the case of OND and NCE, Admission Letter issued by universities in the case of University Diploma, and Admission Letter issued by A’ Level examination bodies (IJMBE, JUPEB, etc.), would be announced in due course so that candidates could proceed to JAMB offices nationwide to register.”
According to the board, the direct entry registration which commenced on Monday, 20th February, 2023, was slated it to end on Thursday, 20th April, 2023.
The statement urged candidates to note that only JAMB offices are approved to register them for Direct Entry.
Meanwhile, the board has decided to close the books on the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, registration exercise as the extension announced the previous week elapsed on Wednesday, 22 February, 2023.
JAMB had granted the extension to accommodate candidates, who could not register for the 2023 UTME within the allowable window of Saturday, 14th January to Tuesday, 14th February, 2023, owing to exigencies related to recent developments in the country.
“At the close of the registration exercise, about 1.6m candidates had successfully registered for the 2023 UTME. This number does not include the Direct Entry component of the exercise, which had commenced on Monday, 20th February, 2023 before it was put on hold on Tuesday, 21st February, 2023,” the board said in a statement.
It noted the registrar’s monitoring team, which had gone round the country, was in Nasarawa and Delta States on the final day of the exercise to oversee its conclusion.
“In Asaba, Delta State, the team visited Trinity Innovation Hub CBT Centre; Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku CBT Centre 1 and 2; Delta State Library CBT and others. It was, however, remarkable that none of these centres had any candidates waiting to be registered indicating that almost all candidates, who desire to register for the exercise had done so.
“The same situation was replicated in many centres in Nasarawa State as few candidates were seen at all the centres a day to the closing date and even these were cleared before the close of work. Hence, from every indication, this year’s exercise is shaping up to be the smoothest the Board has ever had.
“However, based on reports received from the various monitoring teams across the country, the Board would review its SIM number swap policy as it will now require the Telcos to confirm that the old SIM being put forward for swapping previously belonged to the applicant but had been issued to another person, which would, therefore, preclude the possibility of a SIM welcome back before such swapping would be approved,” it said.