The Federal Government has officially fixed 16 years as the minimum age for candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria, with the enforcement to be carried out through the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS).
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announced the policy on Tuesday at the 2025 Policy Meeting on Admissions, held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja.
According to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), candidates who will turn 16 by August 31, 2025, will be eligible for admission, with the CAPS platform adjusted to reflect this consideration.
However, JAMB expressed concerns that some institutions continue to circumvent this rule by admitting underage candidates through unofficial channels.
“The Board implemented the 16-year admissible age on its CAPS platform and even bent backwards to accommodate candidates who would be 16 as of 31st August 2025. However, some institutions admitted candidates who were not up to the admissible age of 16 outside CAPS and even collected huge sums of money from them as tuition fees,” JAMB stated.
The Board further warned that such admissions are invalid and could not be processed through its official channels. It added that some of these infractions had led to legal action against the institutions involved.
National UTME Ranking Introduced
In a related development, JAMB has introduced a national ranking system for candidates who sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Beginning with the 2025 cycle, each candidate’s result slip will include their national position among over 1.9 million test-takers.
“To curb the menace of celebrating top scorers of UTME, candidates’ ranking (position) will be indicated on the result slip for each candidate,” JAMB explained.
The initiative aims to deter the falsification of scores and provide a reliable benchmark for institutions to assess applicants on a national scale. It also seeks to reduce the excessive focus on high scores in isolation, which the Board says often leads to misinformation and misplaced celebrations.
As an illustration, JAMB disclosed that in the 2025 UTME:
- A score of 370 ranks 16th nationally,
- 320 ranks 5,806th,
- 250 ranks 107,819th,
- 200 ranks 533,805th,
- 180 ranks 948,025th,
- 140 ranks 1,855,607th,
- 120 ranks 1,900,872nd,
- And 100 ranks 1,903,661st.
Admission Policy Updates Underway
The ongoing policy meeting, attended by vice-chancellors, registrars, and provosts of tertiary institutions across Nigeria, is expected to conclude with decisions on admission benchmarks and other regulatory measures for the 2025 academic session.
JAMB reaffirmed its commitment to fairness, transparency, and merit-based admissions, urging institutions to comply strictly with established procedures.
