Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has signed a deal with the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to offer efficient biometric registration of candidates for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The deal indicated that the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) will serve as the bridge to facilitate the efficiency and credibility of the system.
JAMB, in its weekly bulletin, confirmed that a technical committee has been inaugurated to fine tune modalities and address problems that could prevent the successful take-off of the new registration system.
NIMC Director General Aliyu Abubakar told the parties that they have secured the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), mandating all private and government agencies to forward their data to the NIMC.
He disclosed that the idea would enable the NIMC to produce the data collated for national security and development.
“With private and other government agencies in the picture, we would ensure that we have more than 10,000 centres so that every ward in Nigeria will have an enrolment centre nearest to him,” Abubakar said.
JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede said that, though issues of citizen identity, biometrics and photographs were not part of the Board’s core mandate, “many Nigerians fail to realise the complexity and strength of the mode of registration adopted by JAMB. We capture 10 fingers of candidates as against two that the INEC uses for voter registration, the comparison is misplaced.”
“The essence of capturing 10 fingers is to ensure effectiveness of verification. At least, one of the 10 fingers captured ought to verify the identity.”
The Registrar was optimistic that the collaboration and use of the National Identification Number (NIN) for registration in the UTME would serve as an effective weapon in reducing all registration related fraud and other illicit practices by some candidates in the build-up to the 2020 UTME.
