More than 22.5 million candidates registered for Nigeria’s tertiary entrance examinations between 2015 and 2026, according to new figures released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), underscoring the mounting pressure on the country’s higher education system.
Data compiled by the examination body and obtained on Saturday showed that a total of 22,537,451 candidates enrolled for either the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination or Direct Entry admissions during the 11-year period, although the 2026 Direct Entry registration process was still ongoing when the statistics were collated.
The figures revealed that the UTME continued to dominate applications into tertiary institutions, accounting for about 21.26 million registrations, while roughly 1.28 million candidates applied through the Direct Entry route.
According to the board’s records, 1,644,072 candidates registered in 2015, including 1,475,600 UTME applicants and 168,472 Direct Entry candidates.
Registrations climbed to 1,764,859 in 2016, made up of 1,592,462 UTME candidates and 172,397 Direct Entry applicants, before rising again in 2017 to 1,882,559, with 1,722,269 candidates sitting for UTME and 160,290 applying through Direct Entry.
The trend dipped slightly in 2018, when total registrations fell to 1,793,018, comprising 1,653,127 UTME candidates and 139,891 Direct Entry applicants.
Applications rebounded in 2019 to 1,989,682 and crossed the two-million mark for the first time in 2020, when the board recorded 2,110,623 registrations, including 1,949,983 UTME candidates and 160,640 Direct Entry applicants.
A sharp decline followed in 2021, with total registrations dropping to 1,428,209. Of that number, 1,351,284 candidates registered for UTME while 76,925 applied through Direct Entry.
The figures recovered in subsequent years. In 2022, registrations rose to 1,859,532 before declining again to 1,635,673 in 2023.
By 2024, however, the numbers surged once more to 2,040,018 registrations, while 2025 recorded 2,093,329 candidates.
For 2026, the board reported its highest figure yet, with 2,295,877 candidates registering for admission examinations, including 2,243,245 UTME candidates and 52,632 Direct Entry applicants.
The latest figures emerged days after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and stakeholders in the tertiary education sector approved new minimum admission benchmarks for the 2026/2027 academic session during the board’s annual policy meeting in Abuja.
Under the new thresholds, universities are expected to admit candidates who score at least 150 in the UTME, while polytechnics and colleges of education adopted 100 as their minimum benchmark. Colleges of Nursing fixed their admission benchmark at 150.
