Reported increases in the registration cost for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have been denied by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Contrary to speculations, JAMB stated that the cost of the UTME is still N3,500.
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The low cost of the Board examination fee is intended to prevent candidates from becoming overloaded, according to Fabian Benjamin, the JAMB Public Communication Advisor.
“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been drawn to several publications in recent times insinuating that the Board has increased its examination registration fee,” according to a statement from Benjamin.
This is untrue because the Board’s UTME application documents are still available for N3,500, the price that has been there ever since it was reduced from N5,000 in 2018. Thus, the Board would like to clarify that despite the current state of the nation’s economy, which has significantly impacted the Board’s operating expenses, the cost of the application document has not changed.
As a result, the Board would like to reassure the public that it has been taking all reasonable steps to guarantee that candidates are not burdened in any manner.
One of these strategies is to purposefully keep costs low, which is why it chose to give away its Use of English reading book for free via a QR code in order to prevent applicants from bearing the whole cost of production increases. As a result, the reading text would be freely available to all UTME applicants via a variety of platforms, such as their websites, email addresses, notification slips, and profiles.
Perceived by some as an increase in fees, this is actually the result of its cashless policy, which prevented wanton exploitation of candidates by unscrupulous centre owners by consolidating all fees candidates owed to CBT centres and having them paid with their application fees.
“These payments are then weekly sent to affiliated centres. For example, candidates must pay N700 for registration, N1500 for exam costs, and an additional N1500 for the optional Mock-UTME in centres controlled by commercial companies.
“To ensure clarity, the e-PIN for the 2024 UTME/DE is still N3500. Along with N1500 for the main UTME and another N1500 for the optional Mock-UTME, etc., the Board will now collect the N700 registration fee that candidates were previously had to pay to the CBT centres on behalf of the CBT centres.
