The Registrar and Chief Executive of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has explained why it is compulsory for the prospective students writing the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination to register with their National Identity Number.

The Registrar, during a virtual meeting with owners of computer-based test centres, service providers and other stakeholders to kick-start the 2021 UTME registration, disclosed that the use of the NIN was for security reasons and to checkmate examination malpractice.

He added that development was also a directive from the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

Oloyede  stated that “We don’t even require the name of the candidate, we just want the NIN. We will then do the needful to pull the data of the candidate and the process will go on from there.

“It is for security reasons. For us at our small level, it helps us to avoid impersonation, but there is a bigger picture. There is insecurity in the country and we know that many of these problems are there because we have identification problems. We can’t identify every citizen, where he is and what he is doing.”

He noted that candidates must make use of accessible SIM cards which have never been used for UTME registration.

He said discussions were ongoing with the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, to grant a conditioned waiver to an estimated 20 per cent of candidates without SIM cards.