JAMB and WAEC Introduce N4,000 One-Off Charge for Admission Seekers

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) have jointly announced an end to the practice of multiple verification charges for O’Level results, introducing instead a single, one-off fee of N4,000 for candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions.

A joint statement by the two bodies, signed by the Head of Public Affairs, WAEC, Moyosola Adesina, and issued on Tuesday, noted that the new arrangement is expected to bring relief to admission seekers who have often been subjected to repeated verification of their academic credentials by different institutions during the admission process.

The collaboration, the two examination and admission bodies said, was designed to put candidates’ interests first by cutting unnecessary costs, reducing administrative stress and simplifying the admission process, while safeguarding the integrity and security of academic records.

Under the new arrangement, candidates whose admissions are regulated by JAMB are required to verify their WAEC results only once, through JAMB, after which the verification outcome will be made available to the relevant tertiary institution. According to the statement, candidates would make the N4,000 payment only through the specified JAMB Verification Service platform, with the two bodies stressing that the fee should not be paid to individual institutions.

The two bodies also directed tertiary institutions to utilise the verified results supplied by JAMB for admission screening, processing and other administrative purposes. Consequently, institutions are not permitted to demand additional payments from candidates for another verification of the same WAEC result.

The new policy follows a series of meetings and consultations between JAMB and WAEC aimed at simplifying the verification process and reducing the financial and logistical burden on admission seekers. According to the statement, WAEC has authorised JAMB to share the outcome of the verification exercise with relevant tertiary institutions for admission-related purposes.

On the essence of the arrangement, the bodies stated:

“This arrangement is designed to ensure that candidates who have successfully verified their WASSCE O’Level result through the Verification Service platform will not be required to repeat the same verification exercise.”

They explained that the initiative would also enable candidates to initiate the verification process from the comfort of their homes or any internet-enabled location, reducing the need for repeated visits to tertiary institutions or JAMB-approved Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres.

JAMB and WAEC urged candidates to take advantage of the new arrangement by completing their WASSCE O’Level verification through the JAMB-provided platform once, noting that the verified result would subsequently be made available to the institution where the candidate seeks admission.