UTME: Parents, Candidates Express Frustration At Registration Centres

Parents and candidates sitting for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) say they are facing multiple challenges at various centres since the commencement of the exercise on Monday, February 3.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had earlier shifted the registration from Jan.31 to allow it to implement essential adjustments to its registration templates.

The JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, in a statement said: “These adjustments came in light of the recent suspension of certain law programmes at selected universities, as submitted to the board by the Council for Legal Education.

“Additionally, the board discovered that some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres had used deceptive facilities to be approved, prompting the need for further scrutiny and corrections by disapproving such centres.”

He said the additional time would be used to ensure that all necessary changes were made for a smooth registration process.

However, despite the adjustments, parents and candidates said they are experiencing overcrowding, power outages and attempts to fleece them by some centres’ staff.

Some of the parents took to different social media to voice out their frustration and the risks and trouble they had to go through to get their wards registered.

The Vice Principal Academics of Rex Christus College Kubwa, Abuja, Chibuogwu Nicodemus, who took his students to a centre of the registration told Daily Trust that the major challenge was that of generating profile code.

He said JAMB made it mandatory for candidates to obtain the code before registering.

“The challenge now is that the majority of the students in my school are yet to get their profile code.  Each time they try to generate, they will tell them that there is no record found and some will get a message that they will get back to them,” he said.

He said they also had an issue of network failure, which lasted for five hours.

Nicodemus added that there were only two centres in Kubwa.

“So, the crowd was so much, everywhere was crowded that I even thanked the owners of the registration center on how they were able to manage the crowd.

A parent, who took to Facebook with the name Simeon Ogoebulem wrote: “Today, I woke up by 4am to help take my daughter to CBT centre for the continuation of her JAMB registration process. Today marks the fifth day she’s been battling to register for the 2025 UTME examination.

“By the time we got there, a crowd had already formed. I keep wondering why the Prof. Oloyede-led JAMB has continued to bungle its examination processes. From profile code registration to filling out the forms to capturing, it’s been one hectic hurdle after the other.

“This morning, I saw near hopelessness on the faces of these children. The security men at the gate were more interested in how to cash into the near chaos to line their pockets. I had to help organise them so that the registration would be a bit easier. I just hoped the arrangements would not be discarded as I left the venue.”

An X user, Toritsefe Jack, said: “Some of the registration centres in Ikorodu, Lagos State, are delaying students that have been to the centres very early in the morning by collecting bribe from students that just came to jump queue…and it is outrageous”

Another parent with user name Phreety Mrs said: “In Calabar it’s worse, my children have to leave home by 3am to JAMB office and they are expected to pay N5000 before they are attended to! My kids are girls and imagine the horror of going to the JAMB office everyday by 3am to join the queue but they don’t get attended to.’’

Ikechukwu Duru also said: “We’re also experiencing the same issue here in Abia. It seems like ours is more frustrating because we have been coming up for a week but each day, we go back without being attended to. We need JAMB’s attention in this CBT centre.”

Another user, Ezra Kachi, said: “I also have a complaint to make on the registration process. The centre I am talking about is the LASU CBT centre. They are very corrupt and wicked there; they left children outside in the sun just because they couldn’t bribe their way in. I would like you guys to look into it, please.”

A candidate who does not want to be named said she went the first day but was told the required number to be registered for the day had been captured and she was asked to go back home.

She said she had to leave early the next day but still did not meet up but was able to register on the third day.