By VERONICA DARIYA

Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says candidates will no longer provide email addresses at the point of registration for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Oloyede, who disclosed this while addressing newsmen at the board’s headquarters on Wednesday in Bwari, Abuja, said the change, would take effect from Thursday.

He said the board made the adjustment to protect candidates from various forms of manipulation and distortion of their personal details by some fraudulent cyber cafe operators.

“They gain access to profiles of these candidates under the pretense of creating an email address for them.

“ Then they change and block the candidates from receiving messages from the board. They also extort them after they change their passwords.

“In view of this, the board has come up with adjustments to our operations.

“The first decision is that beginning from Thursday, April 15, candidates would no longer be required to provide any email address during registration from this year onwards.

“It is by going to these cyber cafes to open emails that these candidates are open to abuse and stealing of their personal data,’’ he said.

He said that the board now had a mobile app that would allow candidates deal directly with the board with their smart phones or via SMS to ‘55019’ code option.

The code option, he explained, would allow candidates check admission status as well as all other verifications via SMS.

“Printing of examination slips, results notification or raising tickets can be done anywhere by using candidates’ registration number only.

“However, at the close of registration every year, we would need the email addresses of the candidates so we can have access to as many of them as possible.

“At the conclusion of registration, candidates are expected to send their email addresses through the mobile app or text message to the 55019 code twice, for validation.

“This is to update their profile with JAMB as the email will no longer be used as access to their profile, rather as a communication tool with candidates.’’

“He advised candidates to guard their phones with utmost care as it was the weapon for all transactions.’’

Oloyede said that henceforth, all JAMB owned Computer Based Tests (CBT) centres across the country, would only allow candidates with ATM cards into its centres.

He said that the centres had always operated cashless services but it would no longer allow candidates go outside the centres to pay for their e-pins and other cash transactions.

The registrar said this was to cut down the activities of fraudsters who wait around and use the opportunity to hijack candidates to extort them.

“Only candidates with ATM cards will be allowed into all JAMB owned CBT centres, it can be that of their parents as long as they have the pin for transaction.

“Those without ATM cards can go to other privately owned CBT centres where they can pay cash to register but we will not take cash or transact outside our centres,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2021 UTME and Direct Entry (DE) registration began on April 8 and would end on May 15.

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