JAMB has disclosed that the board will introduce the use of USSD code as an option to the SMS process of generating a profile code for registration. According to JAMB, this is part of the measures to address some challenges experienced by candidates of its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Registrar of the board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede the use of the USSD code would commence from Friday, April 30. He disclosed this during a news briefing at the board’s headquarters in Bwari, Abuja, on Monday.
He frowned at the fact that service providers had, continued to extort candidates and parents by deducting N50 SMS charges at each trial to generate a profile without a positive response. He stated that these charges do not come to JAMB but to the service providers.
He further stated that the board has directed all the exercise providers and to go back and ensure that where a profile code was not sent to a candidate after deducting the money, such monies should be refunded to the candidates.
He however said that though JAMB does not have the capacity to enforce this refund or monitor compliance, the board will involve the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to ensure it is done as well as invite Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to monitor and check on the service providers.
This means that from April 30th, candidates can generate profile codes for UTME registration by dialing *55019*1*NIN#
Oloyede also said that candidates who had registered for UTME in the previous year could also generate a code with the same telephone number, following the 2021 process of generating a profile code. The Registrar equally stated that the problems candidates are having in generating profile codes are caused by the candidates themselves.
Some of the errors, he noted, were candidates mistakenly sending ‘NIN’ with no space before typing the actual number. ” Some type without spacing, some include comas and even hyphen. ” We have tried to enlighten the public on how to send and receive a successful profile code but candidates seem to get it wrong. We will work out modalities to accommodate all these common errors.
” That is to say that, whether one puts space or not, hyphen or commas, the message should be able to deliver. ” We have asked the service providers to go back and adjust their systems so that such errors are accommodated and we will also go back to the drawing board and incorporate these errors into our systems. ” This should take five days starting from today.
