Victoria Mgbanwa
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued a no-nonsense warning to newly established, upgraded, and adopted tertiary institutions in Nigeria, follow the rules or risk losing your admissions. Declaring an end to “regularization” of illegal admissions.
JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede made it clear that only one path exists for admitting students through the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS).
He stated this at high-level engagement meeting held at the, NCCE Headquarters, Garki Abuja on Monday, with principal officers of over 80 recently approved institutions.
“CAPS ensures transparency, fairness and integrity in admissions. Any institution attempting to bypass this platform risks nullifying such admissions,” Oloyede warned.
He acknowledged the recent efforts of the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu for approving 22 new universities, 33 new polytechnics/monotechnics, and 12 colleges of education between late 2024 and 2025 steps he said signal a new era of expanded access to tertiary education.
However, he made it clear that recognition from JAMB depends entirely on regulatory compliance, stating that only programmes cleared by the NUC, NBTE, and NCCE will be activated on CAPS and IBASS for student intake.
Institutions were reminded to nominate officers responsible for managing their CAPS and IBASS accounts. JAMB has already created access for these platforms across the new institutions.
“JAMB will provide full technical support, but compliance is non-negotiable. Institutions must avoid shortcuts. There’s no justification for admitting students through the backdoor,” Oloyede emphasized.
Dr. Uche Uba, Director of Colleges at the Ministry of Education, also urged upgraded colleges of education now operating dual-mode systems to quickly align with NUC’s requirements.
“The last time we called NUC, only seven out of 15 reported to them. Please, it’s very, very important. And NUC must carry out resource verification,” she cautioned.
Prof. Paulinus Okwelle, Executive Secretary of the NCCE, praised JAMB’s adoption of cutting-edge digital systems, encouraging newly approved colleges to take advantage of the structured process and maintain competitiveness.
Vice-Chancellor of the newly established Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Prof. William Qurix, noted that the session provided crucial enlightenment.
To ease candidate onboarding, JAMB outlined several options for institutions, including tapping into the JAMB “Marketplace” to identify candidates and offer admission. The Board even committed to covering outreach costs for institutions up to 7,143 candidates provided the cost doesn’t exceed N50,000.
