By - Board says candidates in the diaspora will no longer need to fly home just to sit the examination
Nigerians living in Canada and elsewhere in North America who want a place in a Nigerian university, polytechnic or college of education may soon be able to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination without leaving the continent.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it is working towards opening a UTME centre in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, with operations expected to begin in 2027. The board disclosed its official social media platforms on Monday, after its Registrar, Prof. Segun Aina, visited the Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa.
What the board says
According to JAMB, the proposed centre will give eligible Nigerians in Canada and other parts of North America easier access to the examination, especially those who intend to study in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The board said the arrangement will spare diaspora candidates the cost and stress of travelling to Nigeria for the sole purpose of sitting the test.
JAMB presented the project as part of a wider effort to take Nigerian tertiary education to the world. It said the centre would deepen the link between Nigerians abroad and the country’s education system, and would also create a platform to showcase Nigerian higher education internationally. In its message to prospective candidates, the board said the UTME was moving closer to Nigerians in Canada, and it described the plan as a chance to give them more access and lower the barriers they face when seeking admission back home.
The announcement did not say where in Ottawa the centre will be located, how many candidates it will accommodate, what the registration fee for overseas candidates will be, or which criteria will determine who counts as an eligible candidate. The board has also not said whether the centre will run the standard computer-based format used in Nigeria.
Talks with the diplomatic mission
The plan followed discussions between Prof. Aina and Nigeria’s Ambassador to Canada, Prof. Isaac Adewale, at the High Commission in Ottawa, according to reports on the visit. The involvement of the mission suggests that the project will rely on diplomatic support for approvals, logistics and security, which are usually central to running a high-stakes examination in a foreign country.
Part of an expanding overseas network
If the Ottawa centre opens as planned, it will extend JAMB’s international footprint into North America for the first time. The board currently conducts the UTME in several countries outside Nigeria, among them the United Kingdom, South Africa, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, The Gambia and Cote d’Ivoire.
The Canadian announcement comes shortly after JAMB took part in the 51st Annual Conference of the International Association for Educational Assessment, held in Toronto from September 27 to October 2, 2026. The board used the occasion to outline a number of reforms, including plans to introduce critical thinking and life skills components into the UTME from 2027.
A new registrar with a digital agenda
Prof. Aina, a professor of computer engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, assumed office as Registrar this year, succeeding Prof. Is-haq Oloyede. He has described integrity, service, governance, technology and partnership as the five pillars of his administration. These are backed by a set of frameworks that include a technology review, ISO certification, a unified mobile application, strategic communication, unified customer service, a paperless JAMB and staff welfare.
Why it matters
For many Nigerian families abroad, the requirement to return home for the UTME has been a practical obstacle, adding airfare, accommodation and time away from work or school to the cost of an application. A centre in North America would remove part of that burden for candidates and parents, and could encourage more young people in the diaspora to consider Nigerian institutions.
The success of the project will depend on details yet to be made public, including the timing of registration, examination fees, the security arrangements for a centre thousands of kilometres from the board’s headquarters, and how results from the overseas centre will be handled alongside those from candidates in Nigeria. Stakeholders will be looking to JAMB for those clarifications as 2027 approaches.
