Close to 100 candidates waiting to register for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) at the Zulquid Consult Limited, the Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre at the Government Secondary School (GSS) Lugbe, left disappointed on Monday after officials told them they couldn’t register as a result of network challenge.
Around 2 p.m. on Monday, PREMIUM TIMES witnessed one of the officials asking candidates to leave and come back on Tuesday as the network was not working.
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“Nobody has registered today. I’m just coming from Bwari now. Even our Zonal office in Kado, they closed the gate. Nobody is entering inside,” he told the waiting candidates.
‘Challenge from JAMB’ –CBT centre
An official of the centre, Ezekiel Feranmi, told PREMIUM TIMES that the network challenge emerged from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) which administers the UTME, adding that the challenge is not peculiar to just the CBT centre.
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Mr Feranmi said they have only been able to help candidates generate their PIN, the first stage of the registration exercise.
“There is a down network generally from JAMB, which will be updated very soon,” he said.
“So we are unable to register any candidate for now. But they’re being given forms to fill and they’re being put through on how to fill the forms so that there won’t be any mistakes during the course of registration.”
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But JAMB Spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said there was no general network challenge, adding that over 1,000 candidates have been registered today.
Mr Benjamin promised to follow up with the technical team to ascertain the actual challenge with the centre.
“Today is the first day. It is natural that when you are starting something there could be some little hiccups here and there. But what I do know is that we are registering and we have registered some candidates,” he said via telephone.
Candidates Speak
One of the waiting candidates, Najib Yusuf, said he arrived at the venue around 7 a.m. and was given serial number 26.
“They gave us forms, we filled them then they said we should wait. Then they said we should come here. We waited and waited and we are still waiting,” he said.
Another candidate, Anichisom Destiny, said she got to the venue around 9 a.m., filled in the form and was asked to wait.
Ms Destiny who was given serial number 39 said she decided to register at the venue because it’s closer to her home.
“They told us to sit down and wait –that the problem is from JAMB. So I’ve been waiting since. They just started the payment for PIN but they have not started biometrics yet,” she said.
Other centres
At Aunty Alice International School, Mararaba, Nasarawa State, Solomon Emmanuel, 17, said he was able to generate his profile code for his registration but was awaiting his biometric capture.
“I sent a text to the jamb code on Thursday and received my profile code this morning. The centre has generated my PIN for me and now I’m waiting for it to be captured. I haven’t been here for long,” he said.
Another candidate identified as Ms Jennifer said she hasn’t been able to do anything since she arrived at the centre around 9 a.m.
“I’ve only been able to fill the Jamb form since I got here. I was told that there are network issues to generate my pin and will have to wait with others for the network to be back,” she said.
Meanwhile, at Kada Model ICT centre, Area 1, Masaka, candidates at the centre expressed satisfaction with the seamless process of registration.
READ ALSO: UTME 2025: JAMB postpones registration date, announces new date
One of the candidates interviewed, Abraham noted that he has been able to generate his PIN and is awaiting capture just like the other candidates in the building.
2025 UTME
Around 1.5 million candidates are expected to register for the annual UTME which serves as an entrance examination for candidates seeking admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The registration which commenced today will continue until Saturday, 8 March.
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