The Federal Government has officially reinforced 16 years as the minimum age requirement for admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, with the policy to be strictly enforced through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS).
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, made the announcement on Tuesday during the 2025 Policy Meeting on Admissions held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja.
According to JAMB, the 16-year age benchmark will apply to all admissions processed through CAPS, with provisions made to accommodate candidates who will turn 16 on or before August 31, 2025.
“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,” JAMB stated.
However, the Board raised concerns over some institutions circumventing the official admissions process by enrolling underage candidates through unofficial channels, often collecting significant tuition fees in the process. JAMB emphasized that such admissions are illegal and cannot be validated through CAPS, noting that several of these cases have resulted in legal action against the offending schools.
The re-emphasis on the 16-year minimum age follows the controversy in 2024, when a proposal by former Education Minister Prof. Tahir Mamman to raise the minimum age to 18 sparked widespread criticism from stakeholders across the country.
JAMB to Introduce National Ranking on UTME Results
In a related development, JAMB has introduced a new ranking system as part of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) reforms. Moving forward, candidates’ result slips will include their national ranking to provide context for individual scores.
According to the Board, the new initiative aims to curb the growing trend of celebrating UTME scores in isolation and tackle the spread of falsified results.
“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.
This move, JAMB noted, will help tertiary institutions make better-informed decisions during admissions by providing a more comprehensive understanding of each candidate’s performance relative to peers.
The Board also pushed back against calls to extend the validity of UTME results, arguing that such a change would create difficulties in comparing scores across multiple years due to fluctuations in exam difficulty and performance levels.
For context, JAMB released sample rankings from the 2025 UTME, in which 1,905,539 candidates participated:
A score of 370 ranked 16th nationally
320 ranked 5,806th
250 ranked 107,819th
200 ranked 533,805th
180 ranked 948,025th
140 ranked 1,855,607th
120 ranked 1,900,872nd
100 ranked 1,903,661st
JAMB reiterated its commitment to equity, transparency, and merit-based admissions, pledging to uphold standards in Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
The ongoing policy meeting—which has brought together vice-chancellors, registrars, and provosts from across the country—is expected to conclude with the approval of admission cut-off marks and other key guidelines for the 2025 academic session.