Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Tuesday said that 612, 557 candidates were offered admission into various tertiary institutions in 2019.

Oloyede disclosed this in Abuja at the 2020 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.

He said about 510, 957 admission spaces were, however, unused by tertiary institutions in 2019.

“Out of 1, 157, 977 candidates who sat for UTME in 2019, about 612, 557 were admitted,” he said.

Oloyede added that candidates waiting for their Senior School Certificate Examinations results would only be considered when they were uploaded on its website.

In his remarks, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, directed JAMB and tertiary institutions to proceed with the conduct of 2020/2021 admissions.

Adamu, who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Emeka Nwajiuba, urged JAMB and tertiary institutions to consider candidates with previous years Senior School Certificate Examination and other qualifying results.

He said the government would make an arrangement that would accommodate applicants who would be taking the examination when the opportunity to do so had worked out.

“As major stakeholders, we must jointly come up with reactions that would realign our programs to these new realities while these reactions are being fine-tuned to check their capacities and capabilities to withstand the new reality.

“JAMB and tertiary institutions could take advantage of the current situation and consider candidates with previous years Senior School Certificate Examination and other qualifying results to proceed on with the admission process.

“Whatever arrangement that the country comes up within the long run will surely accommodate those who will be taking the examination when the opportunity to do so is worked out,” he said.

The Newsmen reports that admission processes were expected to commence in August based on the guidelines released by JAMB.

Reports also have it that various institutions were warned not to charge more than N2, 000 for their screening exercise.