JAMB UTME: House of Reps recommend 1 CBT centre in each of the 774 LGAs

Amid the prevailing circumstances surrounding JAMB 2025, the Nigerian House of Representatives have recommended that each of the 774 local government areas (LGA) of the country should possess at least 1 computer-based testing (CBT) for the sole purpose of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). 

In a resolution made by lawmakers at Thursday’s plenary session, the House stated that the initiative will prevent future circumstances. The move comes amid the honest admission by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that there were glitches in this year’s examination. Honourable members also called for calmness in the wake of JAMB’s admission to errors in the 2025 UTME, which has caused heated debates over the last 24 hours.

In a similar action, the Nigerian Senate announced a similar resolution in April, where it revealed that there will be budgetary provisions in the 2026 fiscal year for the establishment of CBT centres across the 774 local government areas of the country. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Mohammed Dandutse, noted that he monitored the 2025 UTME and spotted a significant absence of centres in some parts of the country, which calls for concern.

According to Dandutse, the Katsina South senatorial district, which is his constituency, only boasts two out of the 11 local government councils with ICT centres for UTME. He argued that to make it easy for candidates seeking admission into universities and other tertiary institutions through UTME, ICT centres must be made available in all 774 local government councils of the federation.

“Since the examination is computer-based, centres for it need to be made available across the 774 local government councils in the country. In doing this, this committee of the senate, in collaboration with our colleagues in the house of representatives, shall facilitate budgetary provisions for it in the 2026 fiscal year,” he added.

The House of Representatives’ resolution comes after JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, in a press conference on Wednesday, admitted to errors in UTME 2025 results. He acknowledged significant technical errors that compromised the examination results, affecting nearly 388,000 candidates across 157 centres nationwide.

“In spite of our efforts, we are human, we are not perfect,” the registrar said on Wednesday.

Also Read: JAMB 2025 UTME results crisis: Technical oversight exposed in Educare report.

Chain of discussion on JAMB’s technical glitch

While the 2025 UTME results revealed that over 78 per cent of the 1.95 million candidates scored below 200 out of the 400 maximum obtainable points, the latest honest revelation and transparency move by the board on errors in result computation has sparked rounds of discussions.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, the JAMB registrar said that the technical glitch experienced in the 2025 UTME occurred in 157 exam centres (65 in Lagos, 92 in Owerri zone) due to improper application of a software patch by the service provider. Specifically, the six states affected are Lagos, Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi.

“As Registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider, and I unreservedly apologise for it and the trauma that it has subjected affected Nigerians to, directly and indirectly. Once again, we apologise and assure you that this incident represents a significant setback for the Board’s reputation,” he said.

While some parties praised the humane move by the board and the Registrar in accepting their fault (attributed to human error) and decided to reschedule the exam for affected candidates, others felt the trauma caused by the technical glitch could not be overturned with a case study of a 19-year-old Lagos candidate who committed suicide over the unexplainable low score.

Peter Obi, a former Anambra governor and 2023 Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate, has commented on the ongoing issue. While commending the JAMB registrar for his rare show of responsibility and accountability in admitting the error and expressing remorse, he called for public institutions’ reform in the country to avoid sensitive glitches that might turn into a national crisis. He added that the emotional and psychological toll on affected students remained massive.

In retracing its steps and righting the wrongs, JAMB said that all the candidates affected in the 157 centres out of 882 centres would be contacted to retake their examinations starting from Friday, May 16, 2025. It noted that candidates will be contacted via text messages addressed to their registered phone numbers, email addresses, profiles, and phone calls by JAMB, where they will be directed to reprint their Examination Slips for the rescheduled examination dates.

Also, JAMB acknowledged that though WAEC exams are currently ongoing, it has worked things out with WAEC to avoid clashes.