Nigerian Education Minister Orders Blacklist of CBT Centres and Candidates for Exam Malpractice

On May 27, 2025, Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, issued a directive to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO), and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) to blacklist Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres and candidates involved in examination malpractice. The directive, detailed in a letter (JAMB/R/264A/VOL.4/1), responds to widespread fraudulent practices uncovered during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which saw over 3,000 candidates implicated in sophisticated cheating methods, including AI-enabled impersonation, hacking of CBT systems, and collusion with professional exam takers.

Dr. Alausa mandated that any school or CBT centre acting as a “miracle centre” or engaging in malpractice be derecognized for a period determined by the respective examination body, with other bodies enforcing concurrent derecognition to deter operators. Candidates found guilty face a three-year ban from all external examinations (JAMB, WAEC, NECO, NABTEB) enforced via their National Identification Number (NIN), aligning with Section 16(2) of the Examination Malpractices Act, which allows examination bodies to share offender details for consistent punishment. The minister emphasized that these measures aim to restore integrity and deter students and parents from engaging in fraud.

JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, while releasing the 2025 UTME resit results, highlighted “advanced malpractices” such as CBT centre proprietors hacking networks to remotely submit answers, AI-driven photo blending for impersonation, and candidates pairing with professional mercenaries, many of whom are undergraduates. Over 3,000 candidates’ results were withdrawn, with ongoing investigations potentially leading to further cancellations. Alausa attributed the UTME’s high failure rate (78% scoring below 200) to JAMB’s near fraud-free CBT system, contrasting it with WAEC and NECO’s vulnerabilities, and announced a full transition to CBT for these bodies by May/June 2026, starting with objective papers in November 2025, to curb malpractice.