The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, at the weekend revealed that for some years now, over N200 million was being generated annually by the agency through fraudulent activities of syndicates, to correct data relating to premeditated name error.
He said the introduction of a shortcode where every candidate types their names and send to code to a particular phone, as well as other strategies did not reduce the menace of multiple registrations
JAMB charges candidates N2, 500, for access into its registration portal to either effect correction of misspelt names, change institution or other correction of data.
Oloyede who addressed journalists, in Abuja, at the weekend, said the board became uncomfortable with the rising revenue from such issues, and that prompted investigations.
He said that preliminary result of the investigation confirmed that most of the candidates that engaged in such activities were those that engaged in malpractices.
“For example, someone with three names could start with the first name, followed by second and third name. In another location, he or she could start from the last name, followed by second name and then the third name.
“After the examination, they would start changing or arranging the names properly. This was one of the things we discovered in 2019 UTME exercise. However, steps are being taken to upgrade our system to correct that loophole going forward.”
Oloyede, confessed that they were surprised by the intensity of findings in 2019 UTME exercise. He said the capacity of the syndicate and their modus operandi were beyond imagination.
“Some of the structures we put in place were tested to their limits but we were able to apprehend some persons in the course of investigations,” he said.
