The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced the rescheduling of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for candidates who sat for the exam in centres affected by a technical glitch.
According to the board, the issue stemmed from a patching error by one of its two technical service providers. The glitch affected 65 centres in Lagos and 92 centres in the Owerri zone, comprising a total of 157 centres across six states: Lagos, Imo, Anambra, Oyo, Abia, and Ebonyi.
The failure to properly apply a server patch disrupted the uploading of candidates’ responses during the first few days of the examination period.
JAMB clarified that the issue was neither a case of sabotage nor a widespread system failure, but rather a result of oversight by the service provider responsible for the Lagos and South-East zones.
The problem was identified on Friday, April 25, 2025, when it was discovered that some exam data in the LAG category had not been properly uploaded.
A corrective update was tested and successfully implemented by Tuesday morning, April 29, 2025. Consequently, all UTME examinations conducted from Tuesday onwards were unaffected.
Despite efforts to re-upload responses from affected centres, patch errors persisted in some locations during the initial days of the exams. In total, approximately 206,610 candidates in the Lagos zone and 173,387 in the Owerri zone were impacted.
To address this, JAMB has scheduled a re-examination for all affected candidates, beginning on Friday, May 16, 2025.
The board will reach out to these candidates via SMS, email, their JAMB profiles, and direct phone calls. Candidates are required to reprint their new exam notification slips, which will provide updated details including date, time, and venue.
In light of the ongoing WAEC examinations, JAMB has coordinated the rescheduling to avoid any clashes. Candidates with potential conflicts, such as those sitting for Agricultural Science on Friday, will be accommodated appropriately, most have been scheduled for Saturday to prevent overlap.
JAMB also reassured candidates that the prescribed texts for the UTME largely align with those used in the SSCE, except for the UTME’s unique reading text, which carries only 10 marks in the Use of English paper.
The board has taken full responsibility for the incident and reiterated its commitment to transparency, fairness, and integrity. Assuring candidates and stakeholders of its determination to uphold its core values and emerge stronger from this challenge.
ALSO READ: How To Reprint Your JAMB Slip.
Thanks for update