Several malpractices by candidates seeking admission into Nigerian Universities, via the Unified Matriculation Examination (UME), may soon become a thing of the past, courtesy of the introduction of the National Identification Number (NIN) in registration for the examination.
According to a statement issued recently in Abuja by the Spokesperson of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the introduction of National Identification Number (NIN) in registration for the examination this year went a long way in helping to . eliminate multiple registrations, impersonation and other malpractices usually associated with the examinations.
Benjamin said in the statement that the partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) which mandated the use of NIN in the registration process made it virtually impossible for hired examination takers to register multiple times.
He, however, refuted a media report that claimed that the introduction of NIN affected the revenue of JAMB and caused it to drop to N5.8 billion.
Benjamin maintained that JAMB was neither a revenue generation agency nor aspired to be one.
“JAMB is not a revenue generation entity and, as such, is not interested in the ever-ballooning number of candidates.
“Rather, JAMB is concerned with how to address loopholes being used by fraudsters to distort national data in a bid to compromise public examinations.
“As far as the board is concerned, having a realistic number of candidates sitting for its examination is a major achievement which only the partnership with NIMC has made possible.
“It is our resolve not to ever compromise on the integrity of its processes on account of generating fat operating surpluses,” he said.
Benjamin noted that NIN was a good initiative because it had helped to clean the system and restored its credibility.
According to him, it is an error of fact to denigrate the wonderful contribution of NIN to UTME registration process by insinuating that it had deleterious effect on the financial base of the board.
“On the contrary, JAMB greatly appreciates the partnership with NIMC which has led to the inadvertent benefit of revealing the actual number of candidates registered annually.
“Consequently, it is the board’s firm belief that the introduction of NIN has helped in addressing one of the fundamental channels of perpetrating examination malpractice by way of multiple applications, among others.” (NAN)
