The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has given the green light to 85 underage candidates to proceed with university admission, following what the examination body described as a comprehensive evaluation process under its exceptional admission policy.
The approved candidates, who will be below 16 years of age by September 2025, have been instructed to proceed to their respective tertiary institutions to complete their admission formalities and print their JAMB admission letters.
JAMB’s Public Communication Adviser, Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this development in a statement released on Sunday, explaining that the exceptional admission policy reflects global best practices where underage admissions are treated as rare exceptions rather than routine occurrences.
The examination body revealed that out of 2,031,133 candidates who applied for admission in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, 41,027 sought consideration under the special underage category. However, only 599 candidates who scored at least 80 per cent in the UTME qualified for further scrutiny.
“The 599 candidates were subjected to verification of their school certificates and post-UTME performance,” the statement read.
Following the verification phase, 182 candidates comprising 178 initial candidates plus four others were shortlisted for the final stage, which included interviews and documentation review. At the end of this rigorous process, 85 candidates met all required criteria and were subsequently cleared for admission.
The Board has offered a lifeline to any of the 182 finalists who missed the final interview for valid reasons, advising them to submit a formal request through the JAMB Support Ticketing System under the “2025 Underage Complaint” category. Such complaints, JAMB stated, would be reviewed individually and treated strictly on merit.
In a related development, candidates who scored 320 marks and above in the UTME but were disqualified for failing to upload their O-Level results have been given a two-day grace period, ending Wednesday, 29th October 2025, to complete the upload and notify the Board through the same ticketing system.
JAMB reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining a credible, transparent and inclusive admission process whilst upholding the standards of tertiary education in Nigeria.
