The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it will adopt a cashless policy in the 2022 registration for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
it said with the adoption of the new system, it would be collecting the approved N700 registration fee on behalf of the various Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres along with its UTME registration fees.
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It said the money due to each registration centre would be remitted to its bank account on a weekly basis or any timeframe acceptable to the centre owners.
The JAMB, in its weekly bulletin released Monday, said its decision to go cashless in the UTME registration exercise would end some of the fraudulent activities of some CBT centres charging candidates above stipulated fee.
“This laudable step was borne out of a painstaking review of the entire UTME registration process which has revealed some unethical and unacceptable practices by many Computer-Based Testing (CBT) centres,” the bulletin reads.
The JAMB said the centres were allowed to collect only N700 as registration charges, but some fraudulent centre owners misused that opportunity to engage in conduct unbecoming of respectable establishments as they indulged in massive extortion of candidates, among others, during the exercise.
“Consequently, the Board has resolved to henceforth make the UTME registration process cashless to put a stop to such acts of extortion. This intervention will block all loopholes through which hapless candidates are extorted by unconscionable service providers.”
The JAMB, however, noted that the process would not, in any way, increase the cost of UTME registration which remained as it was in the previous year. “As such, it is only the process of payment that has changed not the cost.”