The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said evidence has confirmed that cyber cafè operators were mostly responsible for mismatching and mishandling of candidates’ data and other registration lapses that had affect the smooth conduct of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam (UTME) in past years.
JAMB also accused the operators of extortion, as well as poor knowledge of the upgraded and secured technology being used for seamless registration of candidates.
It insisted that registration is a vital component of any successful examination and as such, it should not be marred by extortion, mismatched data and poor technical know-how, hence, the decision to temporarily ban cyber cafe operators from registration.
Spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said in a statement that Chairman of the JAMB Governing Board Dr. Emmanuel Ndukwe, was impressed with the decision.
He spoke of the possibility of giving them another opportunity in the future but that cyber cafè operators must meet certain standards before they could be possibly upgraded to a Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre.
He reminded accredited CBT center operators of the rules and regulations guiding the 2019 registration exercise, with a strong warning that CBT centre found not complying with ethics of registration will be sanctioned.
He said: “All requirements were clearly defined and agreed upon by the Board and centre owners. Cost of the e-pins was slashed by the Federal Government and nobody should be allowed to do otherwise.”
Meanwhile, the Board has encouraged interested candidates to used the few days left to complete their registration as it is not considering extension of the date for close of registration.
As at yesterday afternoon, 1, 681, 130 candidates have completed their registration for the 2019 UTME. Lagos State tops the table with 234, 259 candidates. Kaduna followed with 99, 677 candidates and Oyo State, with 80, 473 candidates came third.
Ebonyi (13, 542), Kebbi (13, 305) and Zamfara states (6, 475) occupy the bottom of the table.
