The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has approved that its accredited Computer Based Tests (CBT) centres should increase service charge per candidate from N1, 400 to N2,000 due to the soaring cost of diesel.
The board disclosed this in its weekly bulletin of the office of the registrar on Monday in Abuja.
It said initially, each candidate paid N1, 400 made up of N700 for mock-UTME and another N700 for the UTME.
It said the management’s decision to do an upward review of the fee was informed by the high cost of diesel and other energy challenges in the country.
“Henceforth, partnering CBT centres will collect the sum of N2, 000 as service charges from candidates sitting for both the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and mock UTME.
“In essence, candidates who did not indicate to sit for the mock-UTME will pay only N1, 000 for the UTME while those who want to sit for the mock UTME will pay additional N1000.
“This is irrespective of whether they sit for the examination or not,” JAMB stated.
The board further said the high cost of maintaining the centres for the two exercises, prompted it to approve the increase to ameliorate the pressure on the centres.
“Consequently, candidates are now advised to make up their minds if, indeed, they want to participate in the mock exercise before indicating their interest at the point of registration.
“This is because they will be required to pay for it.
“It is also owing to the fact that once candidates indicate their interest to take the mock UTME, the centres to which they will be assigned to will be mandated to put in place necessary facilities to prepare for their appearance,” it added.
The board also threatened to delist all CBT centres that failed to meet up with its approved capacity during the 2022 exercise.
This, it said, would include all centres that were unable to perform optimally to the approved capacities leading to the reduction of their capacities to conduct the 2022 UTME to specification.
“Those centres that experienced same challenges in the previous year but were pardoned, yet failed to address their failings would be permanently delisted,” it stated.
It said the measure became imperative as it had begun preparations for its next exercise, while also assuring of its readiness to surpass this year’s success in subsequent exercises.
JAMB also said fresh CBT centres applications would require a facility, fitted solely with laptops having a minimum of 14 inch monitor before securing necessary approval.
