The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced that a total of 2,243,816 candidates have registered for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The figures were disclosed in the latest bulletin released by the Board and signed by its Public Communication Advisor, Fabian Benjamin.
This comes as registration for the 2026 UTME approaches its final deadline on March 26, with the examination scheduled to hold nationwide from April 16 to April 25, 2026.
Top ten states by UTME registrations:
Lagos – 321,814
Kaduna – 303,498
FCT-Abuja – 302,963
Ogun – 137,156
Oyo – 122,662
Rivers – 105,584
Kano – 83,167
Delta – 77,670
Ondo – 66,270
Nassarawa – 65,739
Across other states, Kwara: 64,988, Plateau: 62,440, Benue: 60,860, Edo: 59,605, while Enugu registered 50,305 candidates.
Niger recorded 47,679, Akwa-Ibom: 47,079, Kogi: 46,783, Abia: 44,394, Imo: 42,170, Taraba: 38,093, Katsina: 37,973, Kebbi: 36,533, Anambra: 34,787, Cross-River: 34,605, Borno: 33,483, Ekiti: 31,643,
Adamawa registered 31,321, Jigawa: 28,166, Bauchi: 27,963, Bayelsa: 27,245, Gombe: 23,012, Yobe: 20,583, Sokoto: 20,243, Ebonyi: 19,662, Zamfara recorded the lowest figure at 14,841.
Foreign country registrations were also recorded, with Cote D’Ivoire leading at 32 candidates. Equatorial Guinea followed with 16, Burkina Faso 14, and the United Kingdom 12. Cameroun recorded 11 registrations, Saudi Arabia 10, the Republic of Benin 7, while Ghana and South Africa posted five each. The Gambia recorded three candidates.