The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has launched a major offensive against examination malpractice, unveiling a national ranking system for UTME scores while simultaneously blacklisting 130 fraudulent Computer-Based Test centers across the country.
The dual measures represent the most significant reforms to Nigeria’s tertiary admission process in recent years.
At the 2025 Policy Meeting in Abuja, JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede announced that all UTME result slips will now display each candidate’s national percentile ranking alongside their score.
The new system provides crucial context to raw scores, revealing that a 370 score places a candidate in the top 0.0008% nationally (16th position), while 320 ranks around 5,806th.
Even a respectable 250 score actually places a candidate around 107,819th nationally – information that institutions can now use to make more informed admission decisions.
“This innovation ends the era of celebrating isolated high scores without proper context,” Prof. Oloyede declared. The ranking system has already exposed several cases of potential fraud, including that of Chinedu Okeke, a purported top scorer who was discovered to be already enrolled in Medicine at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
In a parallel crackdown, JAMB has delisted 130 CBT centers implicated in systemic malpractice during the 2025 UTME. Anambra State emerged as the worst offender with six blacklisted centers, followed closely by Imo with four. Investigations revealed sophisticated cheating schemes, including one center in Onitsha that operated a “proxy testing ring” where brilliant students took exams for candidates at N50,000 per subject. Other common offenses included router tampering to bypass surveillance systems and fingerprint swapping.
Education stakeholders have largely welcomed the reforms. Vice Chancellors praised the ranking system for helping identify truly exceptional candidates, while parents expressed mixed reactions – some applauding the increased transparency, others worrying about added pressure on students. Owners of legitimate CBT centers cautioned against blanket condemnation, arguing that a few bad apples shouldn’t tarnish the entire system.
Looking ahead, JAMB plans to implement real-time biometric monitoring for the 2026 UTME and establish stricter accreditation standards for test centers. The board is also working with judicial authorities to create special courts for expedited trial of exam malpractice cases.
“These reforms ensure no candidate can buy or fake success anymore,” said Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Public Communications Advisor. “Education must reward only genuine merit. We’re sending a clear message that the era of shortcuts is over.”
The combined measures represent JAMB’s most comprehensive effort yet to combat Nigeria’s entrenched exam fraud culture, targeting both the social media merchants selling fake “high scores” and the physical infrastructure enabling cheating syndicates. As the 2025 admission season begins, all eyes will be on how these reforms reshape the competitive landscape for Nigeria’s tertiary education.
