The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has sought to dispel what he described as a widespread misunderstanding of the agency’s mandate, insisting that JAMB is not an examination body but an educational assessment and admissions agency.
Speaking at the inaugural Rite Foods National Academic Excellence Awards in Lagos, where seven undergraduates shared prizes worth N35m, Oloyede said Nigerians had increasingly come to view the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination as the defining gateway to higher education, a perception he argued was fundamentally misplaced.
“We conduct exams, but we are not an examination company,” he said. “You cannot say the University of Lagos is an examination body because it conducts examinations. In the same way, JAMB conducts exams, but JAMB is not an examination body.”
The registrar drew a distinction between JAMB and institutions such as the West African Examinations Council and the National Examinations Council, whose primary purpose is the administration of examinations.
“If you want to know what an examination body is, look at WAEC or NECO. Their names clearly show they are examination bodies,” he said. “JAMB is an educational assessment body, and its goal is admission, not examination.”
Oloyede argued that the prominence of the UTME has created an exaggerated sense of its importance in determining admission outcomes.
“There is a hype about UTME in Nigeria. People believe it is the golden key to tertiary institutions. It is not so,” he said, adding that admission decisions are based on several criteria and not examination scores alone.
He noted that a candidate’s performance in the UTME forms only one part of a wider admissions process that also considers institutional requirements and subject combinations.
“Many people have high scores but do not have the required subject combinations or qualifications for admission,” he said. “That is why celebrating UTME alone can be misleading.”
According to Oloyede, JAMB’s principal function is to serve as a clearing house for the large number of candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions, ensuring that placements are made fairly and in accordance with merit and prescribed requirements.
He said the board would continue to emphasise its identity as an admissions agency rather than an examination body, arguing that a clearer public understanding of its mandate was essential to correcting misconceptions surrounding the UTME and the university admissions process.
