The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has said that it will commence sale of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) form to candidates on January 10, 2019.

JAMB also sanctioned 50 centres for registration infractions.

Ahead of 2019, the board said it has 718 accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) centres, which will help in spreading digital literacy.

This was made known in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES Thursday night by the spokesperson of board, Fabian Benjamin.

According to him, the statement emanated from a meeting between JAMB and Computer Based Test centres at the University of Lagos, on Thursday, where the registrar of JAMB, Ishaq Oloyede, also said the registration for the UTME would no longer be done at cybercafés but at accredited CBT centres.

In the statement, Mr Oloyede said limiting of registration of candidates to only approved CBT centres was to end extortion of candidates, mixing up of candidates’ data, malpractice, as well as for monitoring purposes.

“Cybercafés overcharge pupils and mix up data, which makes pupils suffer. They also do services they don’t have the capacity to do. All these, coupled with the fact that there is no way of tracking them because they were not registered, we have limited registration to CBT centres that can be monitored,” he said.

Mr Oloyede said in order to reduce the incidence of data mix up prospective candidates will verify their data by fingerprint before it is submitted and printed out ”all essential services; creation of candidate profile, uploading WAEC and NECO results, collating biometric details, would be done at CBT centres.”

The registrar urged CBT proprietors and managers to maintain the highest standards as he threatened to weed out non-performers.

“80 per cent of CBT centres performed well in 2018. We have eliminated those that didn’t do well. Fifty centres were sanctioned for registration infractions and against 2019, we have 718 accredited CBT centres which will help in spreading digital literacy,” he said.

The registrar said the sale of registration forms would span six weeks and the general elections would not affect UTME because the board had adjusted its examination schedule ahead of the election.

He said the registration portal would make provision for deaf candidates so they can be well attended to in their respective centres.

JAMB is charged with the responsibility to administer similar examinations for applicants to Nigerian public and private universities, monotechnics, polytechnics and colleges of education.