Long-Standing Challenge with Admission Verification
Among those affected is Jamiu Basola, a graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), whose efforts to register for NYSC were repeatedly frustrated by JAMB’s records flagging his admission as “fake.”
Despite completing his degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering in December 2024, Basola was unable to proceed with the mandatory national service, as his name did not appear on JAMB’s matriculation list—a requirement for NYSC mobilisation.
FUTA supported Basola’s claim that he was duly admitted, writing to JAMB to confirm his status. Yet for months, the matter remained unresolved, leaving the graduate in limbo.
Oversights and Missing Documents
Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES indicate that Mr Basola acknowledged, in a February 2025 complaint to the JAMB Support Centre, that he had failed to print his original JAMB result slip—an omission he admitted might have complicated the verification process.
“I acknowledge that this oversight may have contributed to the issue at hand,” he wrote at the time, while insisting his admission was genuine.
Even so, he later expressed doubts that the missing slip alone explained why his status was repeatedly marked as invalid despite multiple supporting documents, including his UTME result, WAEC certificate, and university admission letter.
Efforts to Clear Flagged Candidates
A source familiar with JAMB’s internal review told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Basola and 12 other graduates with similar flagged admissions would soon be asked to correct issues on their JAMB profiles to enable clearance.
These 13 candidates are part of a broader list of 4,845 whose admissions JAMB agreed to regularise but flagged for further review after noticing omissions or inconsistencies in their records.
The group includes graduates from universities and polytechnics across Nigeria, including Bayero University Kano, University of Ilorin, Ekiti State University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ben Idahosa University, Obong University, Yaba College of Technology, Osun State Polytechnic, and Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri.
Massive Review of Admission Complaints
The source explained that JAMB received over 17,000 complaints nationwide from candidates unable to verify their admissions. Of these, 6,908 candidates were cleared last month.
At the same time, the board identified 5,669 cases it classified as outright fraud, with some currently under investigation or facing prosecution.
CAPS and the Challenge of “Illegal” Admissions
The problem of unverified or “illegal” admissions traces back to how Nigerian universities handled admissions before the introduction of JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) in 2017.
CAPS was designed to centralise and standardise the admission process, ensuring transparency and making sure only properly admitted candidates could register with JAMB.
Admissions granted outside of CAPS—often described as “undisclosed” or “illegal”—created major verification problems for universities and graduates alike.
Between 2017 and 2020, the education ministry allowed a waiver that let JAMB regularise such admissions if schools confirmed them. It was during this regularisation exercise that the 13 cases including Basola’s were flagged for omissions, delaying clearance.
JAMB has since declared that any admissions offered outside CAPS from 2020 onward are considered illegal and cannot be regularised at all.
Hope for Resolution
For affected graduates like Jamiu Basola, JAMB’s decision to clear flagged candidates offers a path forward—potentially ending months or years of uncertainty about their eligibility for NYSC and their professional futures.
While the process of updating records and resolving omissions remains, many see it as a necessary step to restore confidence in Nigeria’s higher education admissions system and ensure no qualified graduate is unfairly excluded from national service.