JAMB Extends 16-Year Admission Age Limit to August 2025 Amid Pressure

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced on Thursday that tertiary institutions across Nigeria can now admit candidates who will turn 16 by August 31, 2025. This decision applies to the 2024/2025 academic session and comes after months of deliberation and feedback from concerned stakeholders.

Initially, JAMB had set December 31, 2024, as the cut-off date for candidates to meet the 16-year minimum age requirement for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions. This decision was part of discussions during the 2024 Policy Meeting, where the board confirmed that 16 years would remain the minimum age for admission for the 2024/25 session.

The cut-off age limit sparked mixed reactions from parents and other concerned groups, some of whom expressed concerns that capable students who had not yet turned 16 could be unfairly excluded from the admission process. In response, JAMB has now extended the age limit by eight months, allowing institutions to admit candidates turning 16 by the end of August 2025.

Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Public Relations Officer, explained in a statement that the decision was made to accommodate institutions whose 2024 admissions will run until July 2025. He emphasized that this move ensures fairness, allowing candidates in that transitional period to be considered for admission.

“This effort is to ensure equity because those whose 2024 admission would last till August 2025 would not be unduly favoured. Any institution that insists on its 16 years being within the year 2024 is completely free to do so,” the statement read.

Institutions are free to adhere strictly to the December 2024 cut-off if they choose, but those that wish to extend admission eligibility to candidates turning 16 by August 31, 2025, are now allowed to do so. This flexibility is expected to ease concerns about students who may have otherwise been excluded due to the initial cut-off date.