•Yobe, Zamfara, Ebonyi record least applicants with 10,522, 4,988, 11,172
By Gabriel Dike
Registration for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has ended with the South West topping the chart with the highest number out of the 1,595,779 registered candidates.
Statistics from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) showed that Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun and Osun recorded a total of 506,127 candidates of the 1.5 million registered applicants.
A breakdown showed that Lagos topped the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 270,573 registered candidates. Other South West states are Oyo, 94, 970, Osun, 41, 699, Ekiti, 21, 421, Ogun, 81, 048, and Ondo, 39, 547.
In the 2021 UTME registration with 1.4 million candidates, Oyo recorded 82,521, Osun was behind with 74,214, Ogun, 70,971, Ondo, 54,026, Lagos, 31,970 and Ekiti, 35,862.
For the 2022 UTME registration, which had 1,763,338 candidates, Lagos, 39,185, Oyo, 112,217, Osun, 97,508, Ogun 96,774, Ondo, 64,291 and Ekiti, 44,572.
In the top-10 states with the highest registration, three South West states of Lagos, Oyo and Ogun occupied the first, second and third positions. Rivers, 80,119, Kaduna, 79,478, FCT-Abuja, 76,132, Delta, 61,718, Kano, 52,790, Nasarawa, 51,289, and Kwara, 49,365.
The 10 states with the lowest registration are Zamfara with 4,988, Yobe, 10,522, Ebonyi 11,172, Sokoto, 13,042, Kebbi, 13,482, Jigawa, 13,983, Adamawa, 15,504, Bayelsa, 16,494, Borno with 16,793 and Taraba, 16,686.
In a related development, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) disclosed the top-10 best performing centres with the highest registration. A centre in Rivers topped with 13,228 candidates, Ogun centre, 12,307 and Kaduna 10,894.
Others are Lagos 10,820 candidates, Edo recorded 10,777, another centre in Lagos (Agodo-Egbe) registered 10,713, a centre in Sangotedo had 10,631, a centre in Auchi 9,337, centre at Onike, 9,248 and a centre at Ota, 9,137.