Candidates who secure university admission outside JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System have been told their offers are illegal and stand no chance of official recognition, the Board disclosed at the 2026 Annual Education Summit of the Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria in Abuja.
Dr Fabian Benjamin, the Board’s Public Communication Adviser, spoke on behalf of JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, informing summit attendees that any Institution admitting students outside the approved CAPS process is operating unlawfully.
According to him, a candidate only becomes duly admitted after accepting an offer through CAPS and printing the JAMB admission letter. This step automatically enters the individual onto JAMB’s matriculation list.
“We have made it abundantly clear. For you to be regarded as duly admitted, you must print your JAMB admission letter. If an institution gives you admission through the back door without JAMB documentation, that is an illegal admission,” Benjamin quoted Oloyede as saying.
The Registrar also cautioned Universities against exceeding their approved carrying capacities, insisting that any candidate admitted beyond an Institution’s quota would be struck off the matriculation list.
“If a programme has approval to admit 50 students, it cannot admit 51. That extra candidate becomes an illegal admission because the name will not appear on the matriculation list,” he explained.
Candidates were further encouraged to verify the legitimacy of their admissions and avoid institutions attempting to sidestep JAMB’s official process. Oloyede additionally flagged SIM card security as a growing concern, describing SIM cards as central to identity verification within the computer based examination system.
“Your SIM card is your identity. Once you lose control of it, you may lose everything linked to your identity. Candidates must protect their SIM cards because they are now unique identifiers,” he stated.
Separately, the National Universities Commission announced fresh plans to deploy post matriculation inspections across Universities nationwide, aimed at confirming compliance with approved admission quotas.
“We are determined to stop the abuse. After every matriculation exercise, NUC will visit universities to verify that institutions have not exceeded their approved admission quotas,” an NUC official noted.
The Commission also revealed it would step up monitoring of Artificial Intelligence usage within Universities to ensure ethical adoption across teaching, learning, and research.
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