As the registration the 2020 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) entrance for students seeking admissions into tertiary institutions including universities and others begins soon and to last for two weeks, investigations by Business Hilights Intelligence Unit (BHIU) show that the challenge of getting National Identity Number (NIN) will drop entries to record low.
BHIU is an independent research arm and a member of Media Hilights Group, publishers of Business Hilights online news channel and Markets Business Hilights Newspapers.
A report released by BHIU after one week of survey across six states, one in each geopolitical region, revealed that out of every 10 people registered at any of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) centre, only about four are prospective JAMB candidates.
The report further revealed that in 2016, NIMC had only 28 million Nigerians with NIN which was only increased to 38 million in 2018 meaning that it takes the Commission two years to cover 10m.
“Now if 10m is covered in two years, it means NIMC can only cover five million in one year.
“Further findings showed that NIMC covers average of 417,000 in one month.
“At every registration centre, out of every 10 persons registered, three are for international passport, another three are for bank account opening and other needs, while the rest four are for prospective jamb candidates.
“Their vulnerability and inability of prospective JAMB candidates to sort out themselves by jumping the line like other adults looking for international passports or bank documents under the influence of ‘extortion’ or goodwill which they do not have, makes them toil all day without being registered while time of registering for JAMB draws closer.
“For the fact that JAMB suddenly included NIN as a condition for registering JAMB effective December 2019, prospective candidates have only two months which are December 2019 and January 2020.
“Again, as NIMC registers average of 417,000 monthly, the two months will only cover average of 834,000 in which average JAMB candidate in a ratio of 4:3:3; will be around 333,600 candidates for 2020 JAMB entrance examination.
BHIU report recalled that “Though the Director General of NIMC, Engr Aliyu Aziz, had at a recent press briefing in Abuja, advised that JAMB candidates should be given priority at every NIN registration centre, however, fact check across the geopolitical zones showed that the advise is not being carried out.”
Further analysis showed that if JAMB insists on NIN as a precondition, number of prospective candidates for 2020 examination will not cross 400,000 mark and chances are that tertiary admissions will drop drastically when compared to previous year’s intakes.
For instance in 2019, JAMB registered not less than 1.8 million candidates as against a total number of 1, 662, 762 candidates which got registered for the 2018 UTME, within a period of two months. Also, a total of 1,718,425 candidates who registered within one month in 2017.
Accordingly, BHIU is therefore calling for two way out; a total ban on all NIN seekers except JAMB candidates for at least one month or dropping of the NIN precondition for registering for 2020 JAMB examination.
