2026 UTME: JAMB accredits 1,039 CBT centres nationwide – Registrar
* As Oloyede inspects CBT centres in Kwara
Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has accredited 1,039 computer based test (CBT) centres across Nigeria ahead of 2026 universal tertiary matriculation examinations (UTME).
The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who disclosed this to journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Wednesday, while monitoring the operations of the team at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), added that the board is currently in working partnership with the Corporate Affair Commission (CAC) to expose Directors of CBT Centres that had been implicated in examination malpractices.
The Registrar added that the board has 52 examination teams going round the country, while he is also going round to monitor their operations.
He said: “We are continuing with the accreditation of CBT centres. Every year we re-accredit the centres. We are re-accrediting to ensure that the centres meet the requirements. This we do every year. The fact that you were qualified last year does not make you to be qualified this year.
“In other states that I have been to, there have been one or two people who were implicated in some examination malpractices last year who now replaced themselves and moved from one centre to another.
“But now, we have linked up with the CAC. Once you are a Director in a failed CBT centre you cannot resurrect anywhere. CAC has graciously granted us access to see who are the Directors of CBT centres. Any Director implicated with his NIN JAMB will vitiate any board that he or she joins.
“All individual Directors or staff hitherto implicated in one place or the other cannot go elsewhere because their NIN has been identified and flagged.
“We have also moved to a level this year, that once a computer is found belonging to a centre that we had delisted, that computer can never come back to our own system. We have one or two lapses and we are going to look at how we are able to get through and we will take appropriate action.
“We have also invited the security agencies to pick one or two persons for investigations. We believe that what they had done is not only an infraction against JAMB, we believe it is an infraction against the laws of the federation. There are certain rules governing the operation of these centres. Many of them are infringement on the cyber protection act.”
Also speaking, JAMB’s Chief External Examiner, Prof Wahab Egbewole, said that Kwara State has 37 CBT centres, adding that “what we are trying to do is to ensure that all centres that are being provided for examination by JAMB are topnotch.”
Prof Egbowole, who doubles as UNILORIN’s Vice Chancellor warned JAMB candidates to be wary of examination malpractices.
“So far, so good as the JAMB Registrar has said. It is an annual ritual. It is important for us to validate our processes.
“JAMB is coming up with new ideas that once a candidate cheats in examination he or she will not have opportunity to cheat again,” Egbewole added.