Hope seems to have arisen for candidates who failed in the 2025 UTME. JAMB not only accepted to conduct another test but admitted technical faults in some centres
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has admitted to a technical fault that compromised the results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in 157 centres across the country.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, JAMB registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede revealed that the scores of 387,997 candidates were affected due to a server-related error that occurred during the first three days of the exam.
According to Oloyede, the issue stemmed from faulty server updates at two of JAMB’s technical service zones — Lagos and Owerri — which caused candidates’ responses not to upload properly.
“The technical personnel deployed by the service provider for LAG inadvertently failed to update some of the delivery servers. Regrettably, this oversight went undetected before the release of the results,” he said.
The registrar said 65 centres in Lagos, covering 206,610 candidates and 92 centres in Owerri zone, affecting 173,387 candidates, were impacted.
The problem, he said, was traced to one of JAMB’s two technical service providers and went unnoticed before the results were released on May 9.
“As registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider. I unreservedly apologise for it,” Oloyede stated.
To remedy the situation, JAMB has announced a rescheduled UTME for all affected candidates starting Friday.
Notifications will be sent via SMS, email and phone calls and candidates are advised to reprint their slips for the updated details.
Oloyede added that the board is working closely with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to avoid clashes with the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The development comes amid public outcry following the May 9 release of the UTME results, which showed that over 78 percent of candidates scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks.
Explaining further, Oloyede said that following recent system upgrades and the introduction of shuffled answer options, an error occurred during grading updates for the LAG zone, which includes the south-west, south-east and parts of the north. A corrective software patch was deployed but was not properly installed on all delivery servers in the affected zones.
He said JAMB acted quickly in response to the public’s concerns and enlisted independent experts — including psychometricians and computer scientists — to audit the system.
Their investigation confirmed that no irregularities were found outside the affected centres.