JAMB announces special screening for gifted candidates below 16 seeking university admission

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced plans for a special high-performance screening exercise targeting over 599 academically gifted candidates under the age of 16 seeking admission into Nigeria’s top universities and polytechnics for the 2025/2026 academic session.

The screening has been scheduled to hold from September 22nd–26th, 2025. The rigorous selection process will be overseen by a special technical committee to ensure compliance with Federal Ministry of Education admission standards. This initiative is aimed to promote merit-based admissions, safeguard academic integrity, and align Nigeria’s higher education system with global best practices.

During a virtual meeting held on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, revealed that three designated centres will hold in three states as indicated below:

• Lagos – 397 candidates
• Owerri – 136 candidates
• Abuja – 66 candidates

It was disclosed that out of the 41,027 candidates under the age of 16 who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), over 40,000 failed to meet the initial qualification criteria, leaving only a fraction eligible for the next stage which is the screening exercise.

According to Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, who heads the subcommittee for the screening, the assessment will involve:

• Subject-specific tests
• A brief oral interview
• Verification of WAEC or NECO results for shortlisted candidates

To qualify,  candidates must meet the following requirements:

• Minimum UTME score of 320 (80%)
• At least 80% in post-UTME
• 80% (24/30 points) in a single sitting of WAEC or NECO

Despite JAMB’s special provisions, four institutions have declared they will not admit candidates below the age of 16 under any circumstances:

Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna (AFIT)
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (ATBU)
University of Jos (UNIJOS)
Osun State University (UNIOSUN)

The Federal Ministry of Education maintains the minimum admission age at 16 years, stressing that this is to safeguard students’ mental and psychological well-being. Out of the 1.955 million candidates who wrote the 2025 UTME, 599 scored above 300 but fell below the age limit, prompting this targeted intervention.