By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has finally released the results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
According to the details on the website of the examination board, a total of 2,030,862 candidates registered for the exam conducted across 882 CBT centres.
A total of 1,957,000 were accredited and eventually participated in the examination, 71,705 were absent, and the fingerprints of 2,157 were rejected by the machines as invalid.
Some 41,027 registered under JAMB’s window for exceptionally brilliant but underage candidates, and 40,260 sat for the examination.
The results for 1,911,551 candidates have been released as of May 9, leaving the number of available results at 1,951,811.
The information on JAMB website, however, showed that a total of 39,834 results remain unreleased for various reasons.
It also added that a total of 96 results were withheld for malpractice, a decrease from 123 in 2024, while further results remain under investigation.
Recall that at JAMB’s last policy meeting, stakeholders resolved to implement a prescribed 16-year minimum age for entry into tertiary institutions and to raise it to 18 years from 2025.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, gave his nod to the entry age but halted the implementation of the proposal to raise it to 18 years from 2025.
JAMB said gifted candidates must demonstrate their abilities through the UTME, SSCE, Post-UTME, and a gifted candidate test.
UNDERAGE CANDIDATES RESULT ANALYSIS
CATEGORY CANDIDATES %
320 – ABOVE 467 (Including 1 finger fraud) 1.16
300 – 319 667 1.66
250 – 299 4665 11.59
200 – 249 12357 30.69
160 – 199 15978 39.69
140 – 159 5528 13.73
120 – 139 554 1.38
100 – 119 30 0.07
BELOW 100 15 0.04
TOTAL 40261
A total of 41,027 candidates registered under this underage category.
From this statistical analysis, only 467 of the 41,027 registered underage candidates attained the minimum required UTME score.
Reacting to this development, JAMB said the 466 successful candidates have been notified of their achievement.
The board added that those who did not meet the threshold have been notified of their inability to meet the prescribed minimum score.
The examination board had earlier stated that 78.49 per cent of candidates scored below 200.
An assertion that made many prominent Nigerians, including parents, raised the alarm about the purported deterioration of education in Nigeria.
According to JAMB, candidates can check the 2025 UTME results, by sending text message “UTMERESULT” as one word to “55019” or “66019” using the same phone number they had used to register during the registration process.
