The Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND declared on Friday that budgetary provisions shall be made for the establishment of centres for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) across the 774 local government councils in the country.
The centres are meant to accommodate candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions through the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and computer-based examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Speaking to journalists in Abuja during monitoring of the ongoing UTME, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mohammed Dandutse (APC – Katsina South) frowned at the non-existence of examination centres in some LGAs across Nigeria.
Dandutse said since the Senate and by extension, the federal government, want people to study in Nigeria, the process through important examinations like UTME should be simplified.
He said, ‘In making it easy for candidates seeking admissions into the universities or other tertiary Institutions through UTME the ICT centres must be made available in all the 774 local government councils across the country.
‘I am from Katsina South Senatorial District, where only two out of the eleven local government councils have ICT centres for UTME. Since the examination is computer-based, the centres for it need to be made available across the 774 local government councils in the country.
‘In doing this, the committee of the Senate in collaboration with our colleagues in the House of Representatives shall facilitate budgetary provisions for it in the 2026 fiscal year’, he said.
Earlier in his address, JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, explained to the committee that the board has 880 ICT centres across the country, but admitted that the centres are not all present in the 774 local government councils.
He said, ‘JAMB presently has close to 900 ICT centres across the country and in fact precisely 880 centres which however do not cover all the 774 local government councils across the country.
‘We shall be happy if the committee facilitates budgetary provisions for the establishment of ICT centres in local government councils across the country that are yet to have one’.
Benjamin also allayed the fear raised by some members of the committee on the envisaged malfunctioning of the system provided for candidates.
According to him, the system has been programmed in a way that its functionality will not in any way affect the performance of candidates in the exam.
The committee, which also had Senators Jibrin Isah (Kogi East) and Diket Plang ( Plateau Central ) on the oversight tour delegation, expressed satisfaction with what JAMB put on the ground for the smooth conduct of the examination.
