Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Isha’q Oloyede, on Wednesday applauded the introduction of the National Identification Number in the 2021/2022 exam registration, saying it helped to reveal the identities of over 500,000 fake candidates.

He further emphasised that the use of the NIN as directed by the Federal Government helped to reduce examination malpractice.

Oloyede, who made the statement in Enugu, stated that his team was at the South-East to assess what was going on with the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination as well as to visit the new university in Ebonyi.

“Before the introduction of NIN in the registration, there were about 2.2 million candidates for the examination, but after the introduction of NIN, over 500,000 candidates were discovered to be fake.”

According to PUNCH, the JAMB registrar disclosed that the actual number of candidates that JAMB registered for UTME 2021 was 1,415,501, and out of it, 1,122,095 candidates had taken the examinations, while 66,111 candidates had yet to take.

He also noted that the board has 650 examination centres across the country, out of which 30 centres have been delisted for performing below standard.

“Fifty-three centres are currently under watch, while 600 of them performed excellently.”

The examination body added that the students who visited a particular centre but could not take the examination would be rescheduled and a new date fixed.