AN AGGRIEVED widow, Dr Jane Uche, has appealed to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to resolve the issue of SIM loss, which is preventing her children from registering for the UTME.
Uche made the appeal during a phone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
While narrating her ordeal, she urged JAMB to make provisions for children of deceased parents whose phone numbers were used to generate profile codes.
The widow explained that her late husband had used his phone number to generate profile codes for their two children in previous UTME registrations.
However, after his passing, she was unable to retrieve the SIM card.
“I have three children aged 20, 18, and 16; none of them had gained admission to any higher institution before their father passed away.
“The peers of my 20-year-old have almost graduated, but mine are still at home. The grief keeps multiplying due to recurring challenges,” she said.
According to her, this is a special appeal to JAMB to make provisions for children of deceased parents to continue with their registration.
“My husband left home that fateful day in good health, but in the evening, I was called to come and pick up his corpse in front of LASUTH Mortuary. We could not retrieve his SIM cards.
“The owner of the SIM card used to generate the profile code is now deceased. Under JAMB’s system, the same SIM card must be used to generate profile codes for subsequent exams.
“What this means is that my children cannot write JAMB again unless they retrieve their late father’s SIM card, which is impossible for us to obtain.
“With this development, my children’s education will be put on hold because, to gain admission, they must be able to sit for JAMB,” she said.
She explained that many candidates were facing similar challenges and appealed to the authorities to introduce a system that would allow SIM retrieval through SIM swaps, lost SIM recovery, or change of SIM.
“I’ve tried everything possible by visiting all JAMB offices to seek a solution, but so far, they have told me there is no provision for SIM swaps,” she added.
JAMB’s Spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, told NAN that while the woman’s situation was unfortunate, the board could do nothing unless she retrieved the SIM from the network provider.
Benjamin explained that the board had repeatedly warned the public about the risks of losing SIM cards, noting that the SIM swap option was still unavailable.
The board’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle states that a new feature is now available at all Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres to address SIM loss, but the SIM swap feature is still not available.
The post reads: “Good news for those who cannot retrieve their previously used but lost SIM cards. A feature is now available at all CBT centres to address your case.
“Kindly fill out the template to access this service for the coming UTME/DE registration. Note that SIM SWAP is still not available”.
Another post on the official X account reads: “Important message on SIM SWAP.
“It’s important to clarify that while this new feature addresses the issue of lost SIM cards, the SIM SWAP service, which would allow for the replacement of a SIM card with a new one for JAMB registration, is still not available.
“The SIM card remains a unique identifier that cannot be replaced through this method.
“This development is a step by JAMB to streamline the registration process, ensuring that candidates are not disadvantaged due to technical issues with their SIM cards”. (NAN)
