The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has acknowledged that technical glitches affected candidates’ performance during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The Board announced that 379,997 candidates in Lagos and Nigeria’s South-East region will have to retake their exams following the discovery of errors in their results processing.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, tearfully apologised during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, taking full responsibility for what he described as a regrettable technical oversight.

Oloyede explained that the problem originated from a service provider responsible for Lagos and South-East zones, who failed to properly update delivery servers after a system patch.

This error, which went unnoticed before results were released, affected 65 centres in Lagos (206,610 candidates) and 92 centres in the South-East (173,387 candidates).

He said affected candidates will receive text messages, emails, and phone calls starting Thursday, with instructions to reprint their examination slips.

The rescheduled UTME will commence on Friday, May 16, 2025, with arrangements made alongside WAEC to prevent timetable clashes.

Prof. Oloyede reaffirmed the Board’s commitment to fairness, transparency, and equity, promising tighter safeguards to prevent such incidents in future exams.

Some of the stakeholders present at the briefing expressed satisfaction with JAMB’s transparency, commending the Board for openly admitting the error and promptly rescheduling the examination for affected candidates.

They described the decision as a responsible and reassuring move for the integrity of the country’s education system.

Recall that, over 75% of candidates scored below 200 out of 400 marks in the 2025 UTME, nationwide concern has continued to grow over academic performance.