JAMB says there is no room for failure in its new UTME surveillance system

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Nigeria’s tertiary institution entrance examination body, says there is no room for failure with CCTV surveillance in the United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) centres.

In a recent bulletin, JAMB said it has implemented a ‘No View, No Pay’ policy that requires payments to any centre to be strictly withheld if their registration activities cannot be monitored remotely from the headquarters in Abuja. 

“There is no downtime when it comes to [monitoring with CCTVs during] the exam. We don’t create room for failure,” Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s spokesperson, told TechCabal in a telephone interview on Wednesday. 

This move comes as JAMB seeks to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated cheating, after recording 4,251 cases of finger blending and 190 cases of AI-assisted image morphing during 2025 examinations alone.

Monitoring ensures that only centres which remain visible and compliant within the Board’s regulations receive their weekly remittances. If a centre experiences a technical anomaly that prevents remote viewing, the payment cycle is bypassed until the issue is corrected and full visibility is restored.

Benjamin said individuals or centres who attempt to tamper with the surveillance feed would face consequences.

“There are security measures put in place, and whoever tries [digital image distortions] will be immediately apprehended, and the centre will also be delisted.”

The delisting of centres for various infractions raises concerns regarding a possible deficit in examination seats for over two million candidates. Benjamin said seat capacity is a metric that affects the duration of the examination window rather than the ability to host candidates.

“The fewer the centres, the more the days we use [for the exams], and the more the centres, the fewer the days we use,” he said.

JAMB said in its official bulletin that it has remitted ₦1.57 billion ($1.13 million) to various Computer-Based Test (CBT) registration centres for the 2026 UTME registration exercise. 

Though some CBT operators have recently complained that the service fee is insufficient for running costs, Benjamin insisted JAMB has not received any official complaint yet.

“If they complain and justify their reasons, we will look into it,”  he said.  “Reviewing the charge means increasing the cost of the [UTME] forms, so that we can pay the [CBT centres] more.”

*Exchange rate used is $1 to ₦1,392