No fewer than 1.5 million candidates will from today write the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in 708 centres nationwide.
The examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will also be written in three foreign countries.
The candidates are seeking admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
According to JAMB, the UTME will start today and end on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. It was gathered that of the 708 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres, Lagos has the highest number.
Ahead of the 2023 UTME, the management of JAMB blacklisted 18 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres and may not participate in the UTME.
A breakdown revealed that Benue recorded three centres; Benue, Akwa-lbom, Abuja, Kogi and Plateau states had two centres each while Anambra, Delta, Enugu, Imo, Kano, Lagos and Nasarawa had one delisted CBT centres.Registration statistics from JAMB showed that Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun and Osun recorded 506,127 candidates of the 1.595,779 registered applicants.
A breakdown showed that Lagos topped the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 270,573 registered candidates. Other South West states are Oyo, 94,970; Osun, 41,699; Ekiti, 21,421; Ogun, 81,048, and Ondo, 39,547.
In the top-10 states with the highest registration, three South West states of Lagos, Oyo and Ogun occupied the first, second and third positions. Rivers, 80,119; Kaduna, 79,478; FCT-Abuja, 76,132; Delta, 61,718; Kano, 52,790; Nasarawa, 51,289, and Kwara, 49,365.
The 10 states with the lowest registration are Zamfara with 4,988; Yobe, 10,522; Ebonyi 11,172; Sokoto, 13,042; Kebbi, 13,482; Jigawa, 13,983; Adamawa, 15,504; Bayelsa, 16,494; Borno with 16,793 and Taraba, 16,686.16,793 and Taraba, 16,686.
Also, the board disclosed the top-10 best performing centres with the highest registration. A centre in Rivers topped with 13,228 candidates, Ogun, 12,307 and Kaduna 10,894.
Others are Lagos 10,820 candidates, Edo recorded 10,777, another centre in Lagos (Agodo-Egbe) registered 10,713, a centre in Sangotedo had 10,631, a centre in Auchi 9,337, centre at Onike, 9,248 and a centre at Ota, 9,137.