COVID-19: Visit our offices only on appointment – JAMB tells candidates

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Wednesday called on candidates desirous of visiting its offices for any transaction to book an appointment through phone.

The board’s Head of Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, who made the call in an interview with our reporter in Lagos, said that such candidates could commence the booking from Thursday (July 2).

According to him, the development is in line with the NCDC’s safety protocols to curb the spread of COVID-19.

”As we all know, the Federal Government, in its weekly media briefing on Monday, June 29, lifted the ban on inter-state travels and others.

”Before this time, candidates had been calling the board concerning one or two issues and need to visit our offices physically to get these issues sorted out.

”With the ease of inter-state movement lockdown, for instance, those who have been yearning to visit our offices nationwide can now do so by booking an appointment with our officials, in order to get the necessary attention, while keeping safe,” he said.

According to Benjamin, to book the appointment, such candidates need to dial *55019# with the same telephone number they used in purchasing the pin for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examnation (UTME).

“Immediately they dial this number, additional information will appear on their telephones, which they should follow and adhere strictly to.

”This will ensure that the offices will be free from crowd, thereby maintaining the safety standard as rolled out by the NCDC,” he said.

Benjamin also urged parents to desist from asking third parties to handle UTME registration process of their children.

He said that such requests had often caused distortion of candidates data.

“Let us sound this warning again, especially to some elite schools who collect money on behalf of JAMB from parents of candidates in the name of doing group registration: UTME is not a school-based examination.

”Candidates should be allowed to do their registration individually to forestall any form of incidence.

“Often times, some of these candidates who fall victims of this group registration, come back to the board to complain about these irredeemable errors, and there is nothing we can do about them.

”We strongly advise that candidates do their registration by themselves to avoid repercussions of any type, including exposing their profile codes,” he said.

He also urged candidates intending to do any form of transactions that would involve cash payments not to pay to anyone, saying that the board would not recieve cash payments.

“All payments should be done on our platform through the banks or using their ATM cards,” he stated.