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Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), announced yesterday that the National Identity Number (NIN) will no longer be a pre-requisite for candidates interested in registering for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) admission process.
It also announced a temporary suspension of its partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), in the registration and issuance of NIN to candidates.
JAMB had, hitherto, made NIN a pre-requisite for registration for the 2020 UTME with a view to eliminate cases of impersonation as was recorded in 2019 UTME exercise.
Explaining the reason for the suspension, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who addressed journalists in Abuja, yesterday said: “We had agreed that NIN would be a pre-requisite for registration for 2020 UTME which will commence on Monday (tomorrow). But there was public outcry on the frustrations and difficulties that candidates were subjected to before getting the NIN.
“We were forced to review our strategies and we arrived at a point that it was obvious that we could not go ahead with NIN as pre-requisite for registration because of the challenges that might affect the participation of large number of candidates.
“To this end, we have decided to suspend the use of NIN for 2020 UTME exercise. We have unanimously agreed to shift the use of NIN to 2021 when candidates must have been given enough time and opportunity to get the NIN. However, about 11, 000 of our staff, permanent and adhoc, that would participate in the exercise would still be required to submit their NIN for verification.”
