The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released a sobering set of statistics from the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), and the numbers tell a stark story: more than 70% of candidates scored below 200 out of the total 400 marks.
Out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for the 2025 UTME, a staggering 1.3 million, roughly 70.7%, failed to hit the 200-mark threshold, according to new data released by the examination body.
Only 565,988 candidates, or 29.3%, scored above 200, while a mere 6% managed to cross the 250-point mark.
At the very top of the performance ladder, just 0.88%, that is, 17,025 candidates, scored above 300. That’s less than one in every hundred candidates.
While these results may seem discouraging, Jamb says this year’s outcomes are consistent with a historical pattern. Between 2013 and 2016, for example, the percentage of students scoring above 200 ranged from 11% to 34%. “These are not abnormal results,” said Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s spokesperson. “They reflect long-term trends in candidate performance.”
The fresh statistics come alongside the release of results for a resit exam conducted for over 336,000 candidates affected by a technical error during the initial UTME sessions. While over 21,000 of those scheduled for the makeup exam were absent, JAMB says it will conduct a final mop-up exam to accommodate them.
But the story doesn’t end there. The board is also battling a wave of malpractice concerns, some of which involve collaboration between candidates, school proprietors, and CBT centre operators. At a recent stakeholders’ meeting chaired by Prof. Olufemi Peters, it was revealed that several CBT centres engaged in biometric and identity fraud during the registration and exam phases. Those centres will now be blacklisted, with their owners facing prosecution.
In a rather controversial move, JAMB also announced the release of results for underage candidates who had previously signed an undertaking acknowledging that their scores wouldn’t qualify them for admission. “This is part of the healing process,” the board said, clarifying that unless litigation is involved, the results will be released but won’t count for admission.
There was also a one-time waiver for candidates caught soliciting help through WhatsApp and other social media platforms, a phenomenon JAMB referred to as “WhatsApp Runs.” These candidates’ results will be released, but JAMB made it clear this should not be seen as a green light for future misconduct.
And then there are the fake high-scorers. One particularly notable case is that of Olisa Gabriel Chukwuemeka, who claimed to have scored 326. JAMB revealed he scored 180, having edited his 2024 result to impersonate success. His real score has since been withdrawn, and he deleted his social media accounts following the backlash.
As the dust settles from one of the most contentious UTME cycles in recent memory, JAMB is urging unity and discouraging tribal interpretations of technical failures that marred this year’s exam. The board insists the problem wasn’t regional or targeted, but many Nigerians insist is regional targeted. .
