Over 1.5 million candidates are to compete for the available 500,000 slots in Nigeria’s universities for the 2012/2013 academic session as they write the 2012 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations on Saturday, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board has said.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, at a news conference on Tuesday, said: “A total of 1,503,931 candidates registered for the 2012 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, making it the highest number of candidates so far since the existence of JAMB.”
Ojerinde said 1,375,642 registered for the examination in 2010 while 1,493,603 candidates registered for the same examination in 2011.
Saturday’s exam would hold in the 375 towns in Nigeria and six foreign centres in Accra Buea, Cotonou, London, Jeddah and Johannesburg.
Ojerinde added: “A total of 3,001 centres will be used for the conduct of the examination against the 2,872 centres used for the 2011 UTME.
“About 129 additional centres were created across the country.
“The implications of this development is that the board has registered more examination centres, thus providing more access to deserving Nigerian children to tertiary education.”