JAMB Prioritises Ottawa UTME Centre Over Nigeria’s Broken Exam System

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced plans to open a Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination centre in Ottawa, Canada, starting in 2027. The board says the centre will make it easier for Nigerians in Canada and North America to sit for the exam without flying back to Nigeria. JAMB described the move as part of efforts to bring the exam closer to Nigerians in the diaspora, saying it represents more access and fewer barriers.

The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from Nigerians who point to the board’s failure to address the conditions under which millions of students write the same exam at home. Out of over 2.2 million JAMB candidates this year, only 376 were from foreign centres across 10 countries. Not one of those 10 countries is in North America. There is no public data showing a demand for a UTME centre in Canada. JAMB has not explained why Ottawa was chosen or how many candidates are expected to use the centre.

Meanwhile, Nigerian students continue to face severe challenges. In at least 20 states, candidates write UTME in overcrowded halls, often without electricity. Many travel long distances to find a centre, sleeping in motor parks and sitting on the floor because there are not enough seats. Last year, students died in a road accident while travelling to write JAMB because there was no centre in their location. The board has not fixed its server on exam day. It has cancelled results and asked students to pay again. These are the problems JAMB has left unaddressed while planning a centre in Canada.

The decision raises fundamental questions about JAMB’s priorities. A board responsible for the admission of millions of Nigerian students should focus on making the exam accessible and safe for those students. It should invest in infrastructure, improve power supply at exam centres, and ensure that no student has to risk their life to write an exam. Opening a centre in Ottawa for a few hundred candidates in North America does nothing to address the crisis facing millions of students in Nigeria.

JAMB’s Ottawa centre is not about access. It is about image. It is about the board presenting itself as an international organisation while Nigerian students suffer. It is about the government taking care of the children of the elite who have relocated abroad while the children of the poor write in the dark. The board should be ashamed. The government should be ashamed. But they will open the centre. They will take photos. They will call it progress. And Nigerian students will keep writing in the dark.

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