The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has further extended registration for its annual Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by two weeks.
With this development, the UTME, a computer-based standardised examination for prospective undergraduates in Nigeria, will now hold from June 19 to July 3 as against the initial June 5 and 19 dates.
Professor Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar, indicated the possibility of the extension on Friday during a virtual meeting with UTME committee members.
He cited the inability of at least 600,000 candidates to register for the examination despite indicating interest as reason for the extension.
About 1.1 million candidates have already registered for the examination, according to information obtained from JAMB.
“There is a need to give everyone the opportunity,” Professor Oloyede had said on Friday.
However, Prof Oloyede said at a media parley on Saturday that JAMB expects that the two-week extension will provide more candidates an opportunity to register for the examination.
The examination body had mandated candidates to have a National Identification Number (NIN) to be able to register for the examination, a development widely criticised across the country.