The House of Representatives has urged the establishment of at least one computer-based testing (CBT) center in each of the 774 local government areas nationwide to facilitate the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This resolution was adopted during Thursday’s plenary session, following the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) acknowledgment of technical issues in the 2025 UTME. The lawmakers emphasized that the initiative aims to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
The House further appealed for calm in response to JAMB’s admission of errors in this year’s examination.
Last month, the Senate proposed a comparable measure, indicating that the 2026 fiscal budget would include provisions for establishing CBT centers across all local government areas.
Senator Mohammed Dandutse, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, highlighted the need for these centers, expressing concern about their absence in certain regions during his monitoring of the 2025 UTME.
He said, “In making it easy for candidates seeking admissions into universities or other tertiary institutions through UTME, the ICT centres must be made available in all the 774 local government councils across the country.
“I am from Katsina South senatorial district, where only two out of the 11 local government councils have ICT centres for UTME.
“Since the examination is computer-based, centres for it need to be made available across the 774 local government councils in the country. In doing this, this committee of the senate, in collaboration with our colleagues in the house of representatives, shall facilitate budgetary provisions for it in the 2026 fiscal year.”
On Wednesday, JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, in an emotional and rare moment, acknowledged that errors had impacted candidates’ performance in the 2025 UTME. Fighting back tears during a press briefing in Abuja, Oloyede announced that approximately 379,997 candidates would retake the examination due to these errors.
This decision followed widespread criticism over technical glitches, unusually low scores, and alleged irregularities in the questions and answers during this year’s examination.
A review conducted by JAMB revealed that technical issues affected 157 out of the 887 examination centers.