JAMB insists on dwell CBT surveillance

Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which oversees college entrance examinations, has dismissed considerations that weak Web connectivity might undermine its plan to introduce dwell CCTV monitoring throughout all accredited computer-based check (CBT) centres, insisting that each one authorised centres function in areas with community protection.

The coverage, launched on Monday, January 26, 2026, as a part of the board’s weekly bulletin, requires all accredited CBT centres to put in CCTV techniques with dwell feeds seen on the board’s headquarters in Abuja. 

Centres that fail to take care of real-time monitoring shall be barred from registering candidates or conducting the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). 

The transfer is a part of JAMB’s ongoing efforts to tighten oversight and curb examination malpractice, even in components of the nation with weak connectivity.

“There isn’t a a part of the nation the place there isn’t a community,” JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin instructed TechCabal. “In all places we now have a centre, there’s a community [sic]. If there isn’t a community, there isn’t a centre.”

JAMB’s feedback come amid widespread considerations about Nigeria’s patchy web infrastructure, the place broadband penetration stood at 50% as of 2025, and community high quality varies sharply between city and rural areas. 

With frequent outages, inconsistent speeds, and full communities nonetheless depending on weak cellular alerts, critics say JAMB’s dwell CCTV requirement dangers excluding centres in poorly related areas, even because the board insists such connectivity gaps don’t exist the place examinations are authorised to carry.

The directive requires all CBT centres to improve or change their current surveillance gear with HIKVision CCTV {hardware} and software program, making a standardised system that enables dwell monitoring from JAMB’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Benjamin mentioned centres can be monitored instantly from the headquarters, and any facility that fails to take care of a visual dwell feed would robotically be deemed non-compliant.

“We’re monitoring, and as soon as we can not see you, you aren’t dwell. You might be minimize off,” Benjamin mentioned.

Benjamin additionally warned about collusion between candidates and CBT centres. JAMB’s investigation into the 2025 UTME revealed cases by which some candidates, in collusion with sure CBT centres, tried to govern registration knowledge, together with efforts to register utilizing mixed or substituted fingerprints.

Benjamin mentioned the practices stay unlawful and would appeal to sanctions. “As soon as you might be caught, the session shall be cancelled, and you can be prosecuted,” he added.

Official figures from JAMB present that 924 CBT centres have been provisionally screened forward of the 2026 UTME, with remaining accreditation nonetheless pending earlier than they’ll host registration and examinations.

JAMB is constructing on final yr’s turnout, when greater than two million candidates registered for the 2025 UTME, because it prepares for one more massive cohort in 2026.