The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has rescheduled registration for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry for Saturday February 19 to March 26, 2022.

The exercise was earlier expected to commence on February 12.

JAMB’s Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

The Board said the one-week postponement was to allow for more fine-tuning of the upgraded and more user-friendly procedures for candidates’ registration.

“The process, which will be concluded within the one-week extension period, is also aimed at accommodating feedback from candidates and other stakeholders alike,” the statement said.

The statement added: “The Board wishes the general public to note that the Board is ever-ready to provide world-class services to Nigerians.

“Further to the above, the new and improved procedures for the 2022 UTME Registration would be made available on the Board’s website, its weekly bulletin as well as other media outlets on Monday, 14th February, 2022.

“The candidates, are by this notice, urged to follow keenly the procedures for registration as would be announced by the Board.”

Earlier, JAMB introduced self-registration outlets in Abuja and Lagos for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) examinations.

The Board said the system would, in the long run, reduce the crowds at Computer-Based Test centres (CBT) in these cities.

The conception of this noble idea is to, besides advancing the digital competence of candidates who feel they can do the registration on their own, expand the registration access points in line with COVID-19 protocols,” JAMB said.

In its weekly bulletin released to reporters in Abuja on Monday by its Head of Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said it was leveraging on the digital competence of its increasing number of computer-savvy candidates to ease registration processes.

The Board said the service provider, Bankfort, expressed optimism about the immense potential of the seamless registration mode, stating that it is the norm rather than the exception in more-developed climes.

Moreso, the Board adopted 66019 as an additional and optional USSD code besides the 55019 code that had been in operation since 2018 for UTME/DE registration and other essential services offered by the agency.

JAMB explained that this was done to facilitate a hitch-free 2022 UTME/DE registration exercise by ensuring that there is no difficulty whatsoever in the creation of profiles by candidates, especially in a situation whereby many of them would be sending their requests via just one USSD code as hitherto the case.

“In essence, the 55019 and 66019 are to be used to create their profiles for registration by candidates sitting the 2022/23 UTME/DE.

“As usual, candidates are required to send their National Identification Number(NIN) via either of these USSD codes for their details to be pulled from the NIMC database before they proceed to any accredited centre for biometric capturing.

“It would be recalled that the Board had earlier given indications that, in its efforts to eliminating all bottlenecks associated with the creation of profiles, it was perfecting arrangements aimed at adopting an additional USSD code (66019) besides the 55019, which the Board had used exclusively since 2018 for its UTME/DE registration and examination exercise,” the bulletin said.

In a related development, the Board said it has introduced the use of WhatsApp as additional support and complaint platform.

“With this extra platform, candidates and other stakeholders would have the benefit of instant messaging and solutions to whatever query they might have regarding any of the operational processes of the Board,” the bulletin said.

“To this end, ASD Technologies, the developer of the WhatsApp solution, announced that the platform would provide help with such things as “step-by-step” registration procedure, for instance, as well as providing a feedback mechanism for effective service delivery.

“The platform is not meant to replace but complement the existing ticketing system, thereby expanding access to critical services, among others,” the Board said.