Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has been urged to publish comprehensive data on the performance and operating costs of its foreign examination centres before opening a new Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination centre in Ottawa, Canada, in 2027, with a higher education policy think tank warning that the expansion lacks a published evidence base, performance measures and a public accountability framework.
The call was made by the iRead To Live Initiative in a policy commentary following JAMB's announcement that eligible Nigerians in Canada and other parts of North America would be able to sit the UTME without travelling to Nigeria. While acknowledging that the move could improve access for Nigerians living abroad, the initiative questioned the evidence behind the board's expansion of examination centres outside the country. It said JAMB had operated foreign centres since at least 2013 but had not published comprehensive data on candidate numbers, operating costs or the centres' contribution to admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions. "The Ottawa decision therefore points to a broader gap. JAMB's expansion abroad lacks a published evidence base, performance measures, and a public accountability framework," the authors said.
According to the commentary, JAMB conducted the UTME in six foreign cities in 2013 and reported nine foreign centres in 2022, including Berlin and New York. By July 2024, however, the number had fallen to eight cities, with Berlin and New York no longer listed and Banjul appearing for the first time. The initiative said JAMB had not explained when the affected centres were opened or closed or why the changes were made. It also faulted the board for failing to provide separate registration figures for candidates at foreign centres. The commentary cited figures released by former JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who reported 1,886,508 registered candidates in 2019, including those at foreign centres. The 2024 registration figure of 1,989,668 was also not broken down to show the number of candidates registered abroad. The authors said the board had equally failed to publish data on how many candidates who sat the examination at foreign centres were subsequently admitted, enrolled or graduated from Nigerian institutions. They identified the cost of operating the centres as another area requiring transparency. "JAMB has not published how many foreign-centre candidates were admitted, enrolled or graduated. It has not published the cost of any foreign centre or stated who pays for it," they said.
The transparency gap is all the more striking given the modest scale of the foreign UTME programme relative to JAMB's overall operations. In 2026, only 379 candidates registered for the UTME across the ten foreign centres in London, Ouagadougou, Abidjan, Malabo, Banjul, Accra, Cotonou, Jeddah, Buea and Johannesburg, out of more than 2.2 million candidates nationwide. The figures reflect the limited reach of the foreign programme and raise questions about whether the planned Ottawa centre can justify its cost. In 2025, JAMB reported spending N113.8 million on supervising the UTME across seven foreign centres, a figure that underscores the financial burden of maintaining the programme.
JAMB Registrar Professor Segun Aina has defended the Ottawa plan, saying it is intended to improve access for Nigerians living in Canada and other parts of North America rather than generate revenue for the board. He said the board was exploring the Canadian centre in response to demand from Nigerians in Canada and would work with the Nigerian High Commission instead of establishing a permanent facility. He disclosed that no money had been spent on the proposed centre and that the arrangement was initiated during a visit to Canada for an educational assessment conference. JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin said more than 100 prospective candidates had already indicated interest in sitting the UTME in Canada, describing the early response as evidence of demand. Critics have pointed out, however, that expressions of interest are not confirmed registrations and do not establish a sufficient basis for the investment.
The initiative argued that JAMB needed to distinguish between two objectives of its foreign examination programme: improving access for Nigerians living abroad and attracting international students to Nigerian tertiary institutions. It said the objectives required different measures of success. "Diaspora access serves Nigerians who already intend to study at home, and its success depends on uptake and cost. International recruitment brings non-Nigerian students to Nigerian campuses, and its success depends on visas, campus security, fees and teaching quality," the commentary said. It added that international student recruitment also depended on institutions and government agencies, including the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The researchers also questioned whether JAMB had established sufficient demand to justify the proposed Ottawa centre. Although Canada has a sizeable Nigerian community, they said, the size of the diaspora alone did not show how many young Nigerians living there intended to pursue undergraduate studies in Nigeria. The initiative recommended that JAMB publish an annual report on its foreign UTME programme, detailing registrations, attendance, candidates' performance, admission outcomes and operating costs.
The call for transparency comes amid broader scrutiny of JAMB's accountability framework. In August 2026, the iRead To Live Initiative called on the newly appointed JAMB Registrar, Professor Segun Aina, to publish comprehensive data on tertiary admissions and candidates' performance ahead of the 2027 UTME, urging the board to make admission and examination data available in an aggregated and anonymised format. The think tank has consistently argued that greater transparency in admissions data would help the country pinpoint where higher education barriers concentrate. The Ottawa centre debate has given that demand renewed urgency, with critics pointing out that while JAMB plans to expand its international footprint, millions of Nigerian students continue to face severe challenges at home, including overcrowded examination halls, inadequate power supply and long distances to test centres. In at least 20 states, candidates write the UTME in overcrowded halls, often without electricity, and many travel long distances to find a centre, sleeping in motor parks and sitting on the floor because there are not enough seats.
The political context of the debate is significant. The 2027 general elections are less than four months away, with the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, and the governorship and state assembly elections for February 6. Education has emerged as a central issue in the campaign, and the question of how JAMB allocates its resources between domestic and international priorities is inseparable from the broader debate about equity and access in Nigeria's education system. For JAMB, the challenge is to demonstrate that the Ottawa centre is a prudent investment that serves a genuine need, rather than an exercise in international image-building at a time when millions of Nigerian students continue to write the same examination in conditions that fall far short of acceptable standards. As the iRead To Live Initiative put it, the board should publish the numbers: how many candidates are expected to use the Ottawa centre, how much it will cost to establish and operate, and how those costs compare with the resources available for domestic examination infrastructure. Until that data is in the public domain, the debate over the Ottawa centre will remain, as the initiative described it, a decision that points to a broader gap in accountability.
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