Any candidate who intends to write the 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) would be better off starting the registration process early. The scenario is different from what obtained in registering for this year’s version written on April 12 (for Paper and Pencil Test and Dual Based Test options) and May (for the Computer-Based Test option).
For the last examination, all the candidates did was to register for the examination at cyber cafes accredited by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). However, for next year’s examination, cyber cafes have been barred by the board from registering candidates for the examination. Only designated Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in each state, which will also serve as centres for the examination proper, are accredited to register candidates. (Next year, the examination is to be written completely online).
The challenge is that the 400 CBT centres nationwide may not have the capacity to manage the registration over one million candidates seeking admission into public and private universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and Innovations Enterprise Institutions.
Cyber cafes: JAMB ripped us off JAMB: We only improved the standard
Many cyber café operators are still at a loss on why they were disaccredited by JAMB. Some described the action as a rip-off as they were unable to recoup their investments after making efforts to meet the benchmark set by the board for the last two editions of the examination. Others claimed that they were not briefed of the change until they could not log on to the server again to generate PINs.
Comrade Philip Agene, Chairman, Association of Coalition of Cyber Cafe Operators, Rivers State, described JAMB’s move as creating a monopoly of the e-registration market.
“What JAMB is doing right now is absolute monopoly; the body has confiscated the business and pushed away cyber café operators nationwide from participating in the registration. What they did was to customise the website in a way that we will need an access code to log in, and that code belongs to JAMB and some CBT examination centres,” he said.
Mr Victor Ogar, who manages Express Cyber Café in Calabar, Cross River State said JAMB acted unfairly by charging the cyber cafes for registration only to later dump them without allowing them recoup their investment.
He said: “It has been a very terrible experience and it has affected my business seriously. It is really not fair after investing so much in the whole Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board registration exercise we are being treated the way they have treated us. First, they collected N10, 000 from us, which they said was registration fee. They called it refundable fee, but they did not return it to us. Then, they just shut us out from the registration.
“We bought the equipment for ourselves. I bought mine for N17, 000. The finger print scanner also went for N10, 000. So you can see how much I have spent and they suddenly blocked me out.”
Another operator, Mr Paul Orkuma, who has his cyber cafe on Aliyu Akilu Road, Markudi in Benue State, said he has been unable to repay a loan he took from a community bank to upgrade his facilities to meet JAMB’s benchmark.
“As I talk to you I cannot pay the loan, not to talk of generating enough money to pay my staff. I have no choice than to relieve some of my workers,” he said.
In Uyo, a man in his 30s, who gave his name as Victor Berthel, said it cost him about N300,000 to establish his office, register with JAMB and purchase specialised equipment such as thumbprint scanner. He said he only operated for a year before being delisted. He lamented the loss of jobs of those who worked with him.
To Kelechi Offor, who operates in Aba, Abia State, the decision was intended to put them out of business. “How can they (JAMB) come out with this kind of policy? It is very harsh and meant to run us down,” he said.
Another operator in Port Harcourt, Abiye Dimma, said when he visited the board in January to register his café in Port Harcourt, he was told to register with N35,000 to enable him obtain the software and the Personal Identification Number (PIN). He said he considered the amount as too much because he was broke. But when he returned in March/April this year, he was asked to bring N60,000 as registration fee.
Many of the cyber café operators also claimed that JAMB did not notify them of the new development, describing it as harsh. Ogar said café operators in Calabar are having a meeting to address the issue.
“We are hard hit. My café is even registered with them, but they just brought this up. Normally they used to call us to their office if there would be any development, but this time they did not call us. We have complained to JAMB, but have not got any response,” he said.
Orkuma said JAMB was yet to explain to him why he was delisted, while Berthel, said when he complained to JAMB that he could not log-in, the only mail he got on September 17, said: “Cyber cafés are not allowed to register candidates for UTME 2015.”
However, on its part, JAMB has denied disaccrediting the cyber cafes. Its Registrar, Prof Dibu Ojerinde, told The Nation that JAMB has only upped the standard.
“Those centres were not de-listed, but rather the standard was further enhanced and any café that wants to partake should up its standard to meet the best practices as we move to give Nigerians the best. Power is not a problem. If you want to take part in this process, you must have all the facilities including adequate power supply. You must have an inverter,” he said.
But Ogar said the new standard, which include owning a premises with at least 150 computers equipped with all the necessary facilities for an e-based examination; a standard generator; air conditioners and security, among others is unreachable by many cyber cafes, which are mostly small business entities.
“They said we need to get 150 laptops or computers and a server to organise the examinations if not, then we cannot be a registration point. The question I ask is, why didn’t they tell us so from the beginning? What sort of country is this? I feel some people just hijacked it to do business,” he said.
Also, Lekan Bakare, another cyber café owner, said the criteria set out by JAMB are outrageous.
“Sincerely speaking, I am totally annoyed with JAMB. This new method they incorporated is neither going to favour us nor the students. They are indirectly telling those of us operating on a small scale to either ugrade our centres or stay out of the business. One of my friends, who is also in this business, told me that he went to make enquiries from JAMB and that what they told him was rather a fantasy than a reality.
“He said he was told that to be given the JAMB code, he needs to have about 200 computers, specified kind of tables to use, pay N100,000 to JAMB to configure his computers, among others. And he estimated it at N5,000,000. You can imagine that kind of money. Where will you get that from? In truth they are not being fair to us,” he said.
Despite making efforts to meet the JAMB standard, Johnson Ibe who runs a cybercafé at Mile 111 area of Port Harcourt, complained that he was not accredited.
He said: “I don’t understand anything again in this country. JAMB earlier said for you to be accredited to register people for JAMB exam you have to have a large place and hundreds of computers. I borrowed money to enlarge my place with the hope that they will give me the go-ahead to embark on the registration, but I met a brick wall.
“How do I repay the money I borrowed from my town union? And it is not as if I approached JAMB late, yet JAMB has frustrated me. This will amount to firing some of my workers because I cannot keep them when I have no job for them to do.”
A tedious registration process
With fewer centres for registration, queues have been an issue at various accredited CBT centres. Some states, such as Sokoto, have as few as two centres, while Ogun has the highest number of centres–15 centres in all.
In Kano, there are five centres: Digital Bridge Institute located on Katsina Road; Federal College of Education (Technical), Bichi; Federal College of Education, Kabuga; Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Naibawa and JAMB Zonal office within the state capital. However, many of them are being besieged by candidates, who queue for endless hours. The situation is compounded by the slowness of the server.
Okechukwu Ikedichi, a candidate, said he made several attempts to register, but failed due to the slow response of the JAMB website, which most times rejected the validation process.
He said: “For three consecutive times, I have gone to one of the centres to register, but the whole thing keeps frustrating me. I spend a lot on transportation and as I speak to you now, I have not succeeded.
“I remember last year how easy it was for my elder sister. What I don’t understand is what exactly informed this latest idea. If I have an option, I would have given up; This new policy by JAMB has the potential of discouraging many Nigerian youths from going to school.”
When The Nation visited one of the centres, hundreds of candidates were seen on long queues, looking dejected. Those in charge of the registration complained of network failure and other technical hiccups.
One of them at the Federal College of Education, Kabuga, Sani Muhammad Kwalli lamented that the registration process had been slow, while the number of candidates is increasing.
“I must tell you that we continue to witness long queues of candidates coming to register on daily basis; but the registration process is very slow. We have a problem loading their data into the JAMB website. One of the major problems we face is that after finishing the first phase and you are about going for the second phase of validation, the whole thing will disappear, prompting you to start afresh and recall the students who have already gone home to re-register.
“Apart from that, it has been hell coping with the rising number of candidates. This calls for immediate help because Kano is a very big city, with high population of candidates. I do not think that five centres alone can cope. From what we have witnessed in our centre, there is need for expansion,” Kwalli said.
Though Ojerinde said all the CBT centres are close tot he students, many respondents disagreed. Dimma whose cybercafé is at Ikwerre road, Port Harcourt, is also worried this procedure may rob many candidates of the chance to register and sit for the examination.
He said: “I foresee a situation where this arrangement will rob many students the opportunity of registering for JAMB ; where some of those who manage to register will not be able to take the exams or where some applicants will be compelled to go and take the exams in places they do not know due to congestion in some centres.”
“Think of the Nigerian situation, money, transport difficulties, insecurity and all. These might discourage some applicants from going to take the exams.”
Chairman, Association of Coalition of Cyber Cafe Operators, Rivers State, Comrade Philip Agene, is worried about the effect of the reduction of centres on candidates in the rural areas.
He said: “The major effect on the candidates, especially those residing in the Riverine areas is that they will have to move out of their areas to Port Harcourt to register. And we have only four centres here – the JAMB office, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Federal College of Education Technical Omoku and Ignatus Ajuru University of Education.
“I see Ojerinde as an anti democrat, anti transformation agenda because when the Federal government is coming out with a policy that will change Nigeria, he is running another policy against the Federal government.
“We demand the immediate resignation of Prof Ojerinde.”
An intending JAMB candidate in Benue, Tersee Akange, told The Nation that for the past three days he had tried unsuccessfully to locate any JAMB centre for registration and expressed concern that the delisting of Cybercafe would denied many prospective candidates of registering for the examination.
A candidate, who identified herself simply as Tayo, in Lagos, lamented the unfairness of travelling all the way from Seme (the last neighbourhood before Nigeria’s border with the Republic of Benin) to Ijanikin to register at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, one of the 13 centres in the state.
“This means I will have to leave my house which is almost at Seme before I can register. I think that is too tedious and heartless of JAMB,” she said.
In Aba, the only approved center is Abia State Polytechnic. Though cyber café operators think this is grossly inadequate, checks at the centre showed that the traffic of candidates is low.
Director of the centre, Mrs. Chidinma Ndukwe, an engineer, said so far, they have registered over 200 candidates – with an average of about 30 persons per day.
She also said the centre is not experiencing the slowness in other areas because they are using two different Internet Service Providers. She added that a generator is on standby to ensure the process is not interrupted because of power.
Can CBT centres handle all registrations?
It seems the CBT centres accredited by JAMB are already reaching out to the smaller cyber cafes to help out – for a small fee.
Proprietor of Medak Cafe in Ilorin, Kwara State, ‘Juwon Medayese, said some centres have reached a parasitic arrangement with cafés to register some candidates. While JAMB has fixed the registration price that the centres can charge each candidates at N700, Medayese alleged that the centres charge cafés N600 so they are only left with N100 per candidate.
“Incidentally, the so-called CBT centres are patronising us to rip us off. They agreed to activate the off-line load for us and after registration we will the Serial and PIN numbers on the scratch cards for validation. After then they send back to us and we will print same out for them. Their own is just to validate and they want to charge N600 while we will be left with N100.
“The truth of the matter is that the CBT centres cannot handle the registration of millions of candidates for JAMB,” he said.
In Uyo, our reporter noticed that a few cyber cafes were still carrying out registration for would-be candidates. Some of such had their banners covered and their operators refused to make comments or disclose their names. They claimed the ban does not affect them.
An operator on Ikot Ekpene road, Uyo,said some of them are still carrying out registration but are doing it now as third party operators. He said they are only registering for the few accredited centres which were able to meet the new JAMB requirement.
He said the only five approved JAMB examination centres for now in Akwa Ibom State are located in the following towns: Afaha Nsit, Ikono, Mkpat Enin,Obio Akpa and Uyo.
Third party operation is also going on in Lagos. In Ojo Town, the only CBT centre is the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Otto/Ijanikin. It serves Ojo, Iba and Badagry areas of Lagos.
A cyber café operator in the area, Mr Bello Aderinto, said they now do the registration on behalf of candidates many who are complaining of likely stress they will suffer if they must do it by themselves.
“Since we can no longer generate the PIN, what we now do is that we register candidates with their thumbprints offline and then take them to any designated JAMB centre that will now use its PIN to upload their data online. But the designated charge is N500 per candidate, besides, it may take up to seven days before the candidate is eventually registered. At least you yourself can imagine the stress,” he said.
Offor, a cyber café operator in Aba, said some of the CBT centres are approaching cyber cafes to purchase PINs so they can do registration of candidates, demonstrating they cannot handle the registration alone.
“Even some of the centres that they gave the licence to register are calling us to buy PINs from them and do the registration in our cafes. But our fear is that the PINs might be fake, and we stand a risk of being at loss and no business minded person will like to go into such deal,” he said.
Ogar said he was also offered the JAMB access code in Calabar for a fee.
“The other day, one man came here and said I should give him N5, 000 that he will give me an access code. But of course I didn’t do it,” he said.
Since Ojerinde has said candidates can register in one place and write the examination in another town, Offor thinks it is pointless to de-list cyber cafes.
“What is the point that one will have the number of CPU and other facilities? Are they going to stay in our cafe to write exam? We have been doing registrations before now and candidates are attended to one after the other. Limiting registrations to these institutions will make things difficult for the potential JAMB candidates. I wonder if they considered the inconvenience they are going to cause people in the rural areas that would have registered with one cyber cafe in their locale,” he said.
Mr Eric Ibiwari-Jones from Port Harcourt believes he can get the code to register candidates.
“Sheebi na naija we dey?” he asked. “We will get around it because our colleagues who obtained the software and PIN will certainly help out. I don’t want to comment much on it because I am yet to recover from the shock this JAMB people have given me.”
However, Chams City, Lagos and the Abia Polytechnic CBT centres have said they do not accept registration from cyber cafes.
Mrs Oludayo Adeyinka, Group Marketing, Chams PLC, said JAMB entrusted them with a sort code for registration that they are not to disclose to any other party.
“There is a sort code from JAMB which cannot be disclosed to anybody. We have got calls from people wanting the code but we said no. We only register candidates and schools that want to register their students,” she said.
She also said there are no delays in registration. It takes only 10 minutes for each registration. The candidates pay N700 for registration and we have also made sure registration is hitch free by redeploying some staff. There will always be queue because so many candidates want to register, but we also have people attending to them,” she said.
Mrs Ndukwe, Director, Abia State Polytechnic ICT centre, also said the centre rejects third party registration.
She said: “Sometimes, some of the owners of these cyber cafes will do the thumb printing on their own, especially when their network is slow, which bring about discrepancies on the examination day. Here, we don’t register third party. It is the candidate that we register and they do the thumb printing themselves. This will go a long way to eliminate issues that might arise during the examination day. So, it is safer for candidates to register with us and other approved institutions in other parts of the state.”
