The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) mock examination will now hold on April 9, and not April 16 as earlier scheduled.

The board made this known in its Weekly Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar on Monday in Abuja.

JAMB said that the change was due to the realisation that April 16, earlier scheduled, was an Easter Saturday; a holy Saturday, celebrated by Christians to mark the end of the Lent period before Easter Sunday.

The board also noted that the date for the exercise had been affected also by the shift in date for the registration of the UTME and Direct Entry (DE), which was earlier scheduled for Feb.12, but later commenced on Feb.19.

It, however, urged all candidates who registered and would want to sit for the mock exercise to note the change of date and be prepared.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2022 registration commenced on Saturday, Feb.19 and is expected to end on March 26.

The UTME however has been scheduled by JAMB to hold from May 6 to May 16.

In a similar development, JAMB said that it had made significant progress in the ongoing registration of candidates for the 2022 exercise.

According to the board, it has successfully registered over 236,000 candidates on Feb. 26, eight days after the commencement of the registration on Feb.19.

The board, while comparing the statistics with its 2021 exercise, said that it registered only 102,221 candidates within same period of eight days in the 2021 exercise.

JAMB attributed the improvement to its partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) while adding that the seamless process had yielded the desired results. (NAN)