The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has approved corrections to the personal records of more than 3,000 candidates and graduates whose academic progress and National Youth Service Corps mobilisation were hindered by discrepancies in their data.
TheCable reports that the development followed a directive by the board’s registrar, Segun Aina, for a fresh review of cases involving individuals who had previously been unable to modify their personal information due to JAMB’s restrictions.
A JAMB official said some of the affected candidates had not committed any admission-related offence but were held back by errors in their personal records.
The official said they “were not invalidly admitted and had not necessarily committed any admission-related infraction”.
The affected individuals include married women seeking to update their surnames and candidates who made errors in the spelling or arrangement of their first and last names.
Some had already corrected their details with the National Identity Management Commission but were unable to update their JAMB profiles.
According to an official, the registrar ordered the review after acknowledging that some requests for data correction were legitimate.
“Candidates who had committed no wrongdoing should not be condemned to indefinite hardship simply because of genuine, correctable errors,” he said.
The official added that candidates who complained about inconsistencies in their National Identification Number records had also been reviewed and cleared following the registrar’s intervention.
Student loses NELFUND loan over name discrepancy
A final-year Linguistics student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said an error in his name during his 2021 NIN registration prevented him from accessing a student loan provided by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
The student, who scored 250 in the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and secured admission into the institution on merit, said he made several visits to JAMB offices in Ibadan, Oyo State, and Osogbo, Osun State, in an attempt to resolve the discrepancy.
“The story started in 2021 when I registered for my second UTME. The NIN that I used then. There was a need to change my NIN profile because it didn’t tally with the rest of my documents,” said the student, who asked not to be named.
Despite the correction of his NIN information by NIMC, JAMB initially declined his request, citing its policy restricting name changes to the correction of individual letters.
The student said the mismatch between his records prevented him from benefiting from opportunities that required consistency between his JAMB and university information.
“You can’t apply for NELFUND loan without your correct details with the school and the JAMB. I have been stuck,” he lamented.
“But thank God for the new policy. I met several people who could not go for NYSC on many occasions that I visited JAMB office due to similar reasons. I know people who said they had graduated two three years ago and could not go further with their NYSC mobilisation as a result of that thing.”
He disclosed that JAMB eventually approved his request in mid-October, adding that the correction took approximately 30 minutes.
Why JAMB restricted data corrections
JAMB introduced the mandatory use of NIN for UTME and Direct Entry registration in 2020 as part of efforts to harmonise candidates’ personal information and curb examination malpractice.
A source within the board explained that the restrictions on data modification were designed to prevent candidates from exploiting inconsistencies in their records to manipulate the admission process.
“Before the NIN requirement, some candidates engaged in multiple registration, knowing that JAMB could not easily detect discrepancies in their personal information,” he said.
However, the restrictions reportedly created difficulties for candidates who had legitimate reasons to correct their details with other relevant authorities.
“However, the board’s long-standing policy on data correction have left some candidates unable to progress with their education or career plans, even correcting their details with relevant authorities.
“Some graduates could not participate in NYSC mobilisation, while undergraduates faced difficulties accessing student loans and other opportunities.
NIMC modification portal
A senior JAMB official said the board was now using NIMC’s NIN modification portal to resolve inconsistencies between candidates’ records and their verified identity information.
NIMC spokesperson, Kayode Adegoke, said the commission had established a self-service platform that enables Nigerians to update their personal information, including names, telephone numbers and residential addresses.
According to him, the platform had been operational for over a year and had processed millions of modifications.
“If Nigerians want to modify their NIN data, may be your name, phone number, home address, maybe you were single, and now you were single and married now and you want to change your name; the process is simple and seamless,” Adegoke told TheCable in an interview.
“You don’t need to go our office for anybody to do it for you. We call it the self-service modification portal. On this portal, just change whatever you want to change by yourself.”
Adegoke also disclosed that NIMC and JAMB had established a partnership to ensure that candidates’ records were harmonised with the commission’s database.
“We have a strategic relationship with JAMB. For instance, if you are registering for JAMB, you have to fill in your national identification number. It’s part of the harmonisation process,” he said.
“For any modification, people should use self-service modification portal. It works well; millions of modifications have been done on the portal.”
JAMB introduces SIM card and email corrections
The board has also put measures in place to address challenges faced by candidates who lose access to the phone numbers or email addresses linked to their JAMB profiles.
Previously, candidates who lost their registered SIM cards often encountered difficulties completing transactions because they could no longer receive verification codes.
Some candidates reportedly remained unable to register for UTME for years due to the loss of their phone numbers, while others sought educational opportunities abroad.
However, the board has introduced a verification-based procedure through which candidates can apply to change their registered telephone numbers.
Candidates can also request corrections to wrongly entered email addresses or update their profiles when they lose access to their existing accounts.
“These measures represent a significant departure from a system in which an initial error could become a prolonged barrier to accessing essential admission services,” one of the sources said.
