JAMB
Published: February 12, 2026
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By Emmanuel Iweh
JAMB Announces Extension of 2026 UTME Registration Following Server Downtime
"The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has extended the registration window by two weeks to accommodate candidates facing National Identification Number verification issues."
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has officially announced a two-week extension for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration. This decision follows widespread reports of technical difficulties associated with the National Identification Number (NIN) integration system. Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar, emphasized that no candidate should be disenfranchised due to system failures beyond their control. This extension has significant implications for admission chances. Historically, registration extensions correlate with an increase in total applicants, often pushing the final tally past the 2 million mark. For candidates, this means heightened competition. The extra time allows latecomers to enter the race, particularly those eyeing highly competitive courses like Medicine and Engineering where every fraction of a point in the UTME score matters. From an investigative standpoint, the server downtime reveals a bottleneck in the digital infrastructure of the country's identity management system. Candidates are advised to utilize this window to ensure their subject combinations are correct, as errors during this phase often lead to disqualification during the CAPS (Central Admissions Processing System) screening later in the year. The surge in applicants also suggests that the 'carry-over' effect from previous years remains high, putting pressure on the quota systems of federal universities. Admission seekers must now target scores above 280 to remain competitive in the merit category, as the pool of high-performing students is expected to expand with the extended preparation time. Furthermore, the extension might lead to a slight shift in the main examination timetable, potentially moving the start date from late April to early May. This provides a strategic advantage for students to intensify their revision, but it also increases the psychological pressure of a prolonged waiting period. Investigative data from previous cycles suggests that students who register during the extension period often face more challenges with center allocation, sometimes being posted to distant towns due to the exhaustion of capacity in urban hubs. Candidates are urged to finalize their biometric capturing immediately to avoid the last-minute rush that typically crashes the portal in the final 48 hours.
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