The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the sale of e-PINs for its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) has dropped drastically.

Nonetheless, in its weekly bulletin on Monday, the board reiterated its stand to close its 2022 registration exercise on March 26, as scheduled.

“This emphasis is essential because of the persistent drop in the number of e-PINs being vended, as well as the low turnout of candidates at the various centres across the nation,” it explained. “It would be recalled that the board had stated that it would not extend the registration beyond the window allotted to it by relevant authorities to conduct the exercise.”

Registration for the exercise commenced on February 19.

The board maintained that the dates were fixed through a consensus by the Federal Ministry of Education and examination agencies before the commencement of the exercise.

“Therefore, all candidates who desired to register for this year’s examination are to do so immediately, as they only have this week, and no extension would be granted after the close of registration,” JAMB stated.

However, the board said it had registered 1,512,739 candidates as of March 19.

It added that it remitted N261,992,200 to accredited computer-based tests (CBT) centres and the N700 accumulated service charge for the fourth week of the exercise.

(NAN)