JAMB Builds 5000-Seater Capacity Computer-Based Test Centres In Four States

Putting up measures to ease challenges and stress which prospective candidates of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) experience yearly, the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) has begun construction of 5000-seaterbcapacity Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centres in four states of the federation, covering the three regions of the country.

The mega JAMB Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centres are expected to cater for a very large number of candidates across the regions of country, housing 15,000 applicants per day, and will be located in Abeokuta, Ogun state; Osogbo, Osun state; Bauchi, Bauchi state and Owerri, Imo state, as the Board pledges to the needful to lessen the challenges faced by UTME candidates.

Speaking at the foundation laying of 10-storey of mega CBT Centre in Abeokuta on Saturday, Ishaq Oloyede, a Professor and Registrar of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), noted that the centres were being constructed to ease yearly pressure from candidates of UTME in the country, saying Abeokuta CBT Centre will serve applicants in Ogun, Lagos and other Southwest States.

Oloyede, who revealed that the N1billion Abeokuta CBT centre project and others that will be located in various Nigeria’s states are being funded by JAMB and National Communication Commission (NCC), said 36 percent of the candidates that register and sit for the UTME every year come from Ogun (17%) and Lagos States (19%) respectively, hence there is need to have a mega CBT centre in Abeokuta that would cater for such huge concentration.

He said, “The Federal Government directed that the NCC should construct two CBT centres in the North and Southern parts of Nigeria. I applied for a centre for Ogun State and it was granted. The Ogun State Government graciously and expressly allocated this expanse of land to JAMB.
“Our intention is to have a mega CBT centre in Lagos State but considering the space we have here, we went back to the drawing board and decided that it should be sited in Abeokuta. It will serve the entire southwest states.”

Oloyede, while commending Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state who was joined by Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, Alike of Egbaland, for allocating land to JAMB for the construction of CBT Centre, also hailed the recent return of the post UTME screening test to the universities by the Federal Ministry of Education.

He said it was the right, and professional thing to do by the Ministry as obtained in the United Kingdom and other countries, just as he assured Nigerians that JAMB as an “admission clearing house,” would implement the decision effectively without encroaching on the right and autonomy of the University Senate on admission issues.

Responding, Governor Amosun stated that the mega CBT project would bring desired growth to Ogun state and other states in Yorubaland, saying the project came at a time when Southwest Region had started Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), and therefore, urged his colleague governors to support the project.

The Governor added that since the contractors had been mobilised to site since they had been paid some money, assuring Federal Government that he would personally monitor construction of the CBT Centre to ensure its completion, and not to exceed 12 Calendar months.