The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has commenced the accreditation of Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Board disclosed that no fewer than 848 CBT centres are scheduled to be assessed in the nationwide accreditation exercise, which began on Monday, 15 December 2025.
According to JAMB’s Weekly Bulletin obtained in Abuja on Monday, the Registrar of the Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, recently convened a virtual meeting with key stakeholders involved in the exercise. Participants included Chief External Examiners (CEEs), Chief Technical Advisors (CTAs), Zonal Directors, State Coordinators, representatives of the Computer Professionals Association of Nigeria (CPAN), Zonal IT Officers (ZITOs), State IT Officers (SITOs), Professional IT Officers (PITOs) and other critical stakeholders.
In his address, Oloyede appreciated the participants for responding promptly to the Board’s invitation and charged members of the accreditation team to remain focused, diligent and thorough in carrying out their responsibilities. He warned that the decisions taken during the exercise would have far-reaching implications for the integrity of the UTME.
The Registrar urged the team to approach the assignment as a national duty and cautioned against accrediting centres that fail to meet the Board’s required standards.
He also advised participants to be security conscious, limit unnecessary movements and avoid actions that could expose them to risks, while assuring them that adequate security measures had been put in place to ensure a smooth and hitch-free exercise.
Providing technical clarification, JAMB’s IT Consultant, Mr Damilola Bamiro, explained that only centres that successfully conducted the mandatory automated system-readiness test were eligible for physical accreditation. He noted that the results of the automated test would determine which centres qualify for inspection.
Bamiro outlined key areas of focus during the accreditation, including CCTV coverage, which must be fully wired and operated with a HIKVision model using the recommended 16 channels, with all switches connected to an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
He added that other requirements include verifiable holding rooms or halls located close to the examination hall, a minimum of 250 functional laptops for new centres, spacious registration areas with CCTV coverage, accessible network cables for biometric verification, and the adoption of a star topology network configuration with all switches connected to a master switch to ease troubleshooting.
In her presentation, the Director of Information Technology Services (ITS), represented by Mr Auwal Ahmed Bello, guided participants through the operations of the Centre Management System (CMS) and other reporting procedures relevant to the exercise.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the CEEs, Prof. Vincent Tenebe, and Prof. Bashir Galandanci, CTAs, reaffirmed their commitment to the success of the accreditation process. They emphasised the critical role of accreditation in safeguarding the credibility of the 2026 UTME and pledged to deliver an exercise that would meet national and international standards.
Both officials also expressed appreciation to the Board for the opportunity to contribute to national development through the exercise.
