…the highs and lows of his 10-year tenure
Today, Ishaq Oloyede, former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), bows out as registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) after 10 years in office. IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI of The CABLE examines the record legacies and major downsides of his decade-long reign.
JAMB was established in February 1978 during the military regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to centralise university admissions, ensure uniformity in the conduct of matriculation examinations, and facilitate the placement of qualified candidates into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions with integrity, transparency and fairness.
Although its mandate was initially focused on universities, the board’s scope was expanded in 1989 to include polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics.
In its 48-year history, JAMB has had seven registrars. Oloyede, the outgoing registrar, is the fifth, while Segun Aina, a professor of computer engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, appointed in May, becomes the sixth as his tenure begins on Friday, August 1.
Oloyede was first appointed JAMB registrar on August 9, 2016, by former President Muhammadu Buhari and was reappointed for a second term in August 2021.
He succeeded Dibu Ojerinde, who led the board from 2007 to 2016 and introduced the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as a single national entrance examination, computer-based testing (CBT) and the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), reforms that laid the foundation for further improvements under Oloyede.
Under Oloyede, JAMB recorded some of its most significant reforms and milestones. From a surge in candidate enrolment and a sweeping clean-up of long-standing irregularities in the admissions process to recurring technical glitches that tested public confidence in the board, here are the highs and lows of his 10-year tenure.
Reducing corruption
Oloyede has been credited with implementing sweeping reforms at JAMB
According to reports, Oloyede was appointed at a time Nigeria’s admission system was grappling with widespread corruption and examination malpractice, driven largely by the proliferation of “miracle centres” and corrupt officials within the board who allegedly traded in cut-off marks.
Although Oloyede’s predecessor introduced computer-based testing (CBT) in 2014, the system was initially plagued by delays, confusion and scratch-card fraud.
Months after assuming office, Oloyede ordered a comprehensive financial audit of the board. During the exercise, Philomina Chieshe, a clerk at JAMB’s Benue office, claimed that a snake had swallowed N36 million realised from the sale of scratch cards.
The official was later arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), alongside five others, over the alleged diversion of the funds, while the incident went on to become one of Nigeria’s most talked-about corruption scandals.
However, since 2019, the board has reportedly recorded a near-zero internal fraud rate, a development widely attributed to Oloyede’s transparency-driven and uncompromising anti-corruption reforms.
The impact has also been reflected in JAMB’s remittances to the national treasury.
Before Oloyede’s appointment, JAMB had reportedly remitted just N50 million to the federal government in five years.
However, despite retaining the UTME application fee in 2017, barely a year after Oloyede assumed office, the board remitted N7.8 billion to the federal government from application sales alone.
In 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari approved a reduction in the UTME application fee from N5,000 to N3,500.
Despite the price cut, JAMB still remitted N5.2 billion, N3.7 billion, N4 billion, N3 billion and N6 billion to the federal government in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024, respectively, according to reports.
Record enrolments
The surge in JAMB’s yearly remittance to the federal purse was driven by a steady rise in UTME enrolment over the past decade under Oloyede.
The 2017 UTME, the first conducted under Oloyede, recorded 1,722,236 candidates, with 7,000 invigilators and monitors deployed across 642 computer-based test (CBT) centres nationwide.
Official records show that the number of UTME applicants declined only twice in the last 10 years. In 2016, 1,592,462 candidates registered for the examination. The figure rose to over 1.7 million in 2017 before dropping to 1.6 million in 2018.
Applications rebounded in 2019, reaching 1,886,509, and climbed to over 1.9 million in 2020 before falling again to over 1.3 million in 2021.
Since 2022, however, UTME enrollment has increased consistently, rising from over 1.8 million to a record 2.2 million in 2026.
The increase, analysts say, reflected growing demand for tertiary education, wider CBT access and expansion of accredited examination centres.
Infrastructural lapses
While the surge in enrolments, aggressive anti-corruption drive, improved transparency, and increased remittances to the federal purse were among the high points of Oloyede’s tenure, infrastructural lapses remained one of its major low points.
From 2017 to 2026, the examination continued to experience CBT-related technical issues, including network and server glitches, system disconnections, and slow loading.
According to reports, candidates frequently encountered systems logging out, freezing, or failing to upload their responses.
One of the most prominent incidents occurred in 2025, towards the twilight of Oloyede’s second term, when server patch errors affected about 380,000 candidates across 157 centres, mainly in Lagos and the south-east, forcing the board to conduct a resit examination.
That year, the outgoing JAMB registrar wept publicly in Abuja while apologising to Nigerians, saying he had even attempted to resign.
However, the operational disruptions resurfaced in 2026.
On March 27, several candidates scheduled to sit the 2026 mock UTME were left stranded after technical failures disrupted the exercise in parts of the country.
Many candidates reportedly arrived at their centres as early as 6 am, but the examination did not commence until about 1:30 pm, triggering frustration among parents and students.
The board subsequently delisted 23 CBT centres across 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over what it described as “technical inaccuracies” that marred the 2026 mock examination.
Fabian Benjamin, JAMB spokesperson, said the board also issued warnings to 88 centres over minor technical issues, adding that one centre would no longer be used for any of its examinations.
However, during the 2026 UTME, similar technical failures resurfaced at some centres, forcing JAMB to reschedule the examination for affected candidates.
Examination malpractice
Despite introducing key reforms, including upgraded biometric systems, blacklisting of CBT centres and stricter monitoring mechanisms, examination malpractice and UTME registration fraud remain a major setback of Oloyede’s tenure.
In 2017, during Oloyede’s maiden UTME exercise, over 10,000 candidates were caught engaging in examination malpractice in Anambra alone, while 48 CBT centres were blacklisted for extortion and examination malpractice.
However, by 2026, the challenge had evolved into artificial intelligence (AI)-driven fraud, with candidates, allegedly backed by their parents, manipulating biometrics and even forging results.
On February 28, Oloyede said JAMB uncovered a syndicate allegedly using AI to bypass the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to assist candidates.
At the time, he said about 38,000 underage candidates had registered for the 2026 UTME, but about 100 of them had allegedly been assisted by the syndicate during registration.
On April 18, the board said two candidates and one parent were arrested and kept in its custody for allegedly engaging in result falsification using AI and other electronic means.
Persistent mass failure
With an average failure rate of 78.29 per cent recorded over seven years of Oloyede’s two-term tenure, mass low performance remains another recurring UTME pattern awaiting the new JAMB registrar.
According to the Punch newspaper, about 9.17 million out of the 11.9 million candidates who sat the examination between 2018 and 2024 scored below the 200 mark.
JAMB said over 75 per cent, representing about 1.5 million candidates, scored below 200 in the 2025 UTME.
Data published on the board’s official channels showed that out of the 1,955,059 candidates who sat the examination, only 420,415 scored above 200.
This represents just over 21 per cent of the total candidates, while 1,534,654 candidates scored below 200 out of the maximum obtainable score of 400.
This translates to 78.49 per cent of candidates who sat the examination.
The board is yet to release the official breakdown of the 2026 UTME results.
Over the years, mass failure in the UTME has been attributed to several factors, including technical disruptions, poor secondary school preparation, and inadequate candidate readiness.
As Aina steps in
As the former UNILORIN vice-chancellor bids JAMB farewell today, key stakeholders in the education sector say he leaves behind a legacy of far-reaching reforms despite the visible challenges that marked his tenure.
He will hand over to Aina at a colourful ceremony at JAMB’s headquarters in Abuja.
According to Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Aina, who turned 40 this July, becomes the youngest registrar in JAMB’s history.
The presidency described him as “a distinguished academic and systems expert with extensive experience in national examination systems, digital infrastructure, and public-sector institutional reform”.
Onanuga said the computer science scholar, who began his career with JAMB during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, has over 15 years of post-graduation experience.
With his strong academic background in systems engineering and nearly two decades of experience in national examinations, attention will now be on how the incoming registrar tackles the recurring technical lapses and other operational challenges that have continued to trail the board.
