UTME applications data intensifies concerns over state of education in northern Nigeria

An observation shared on social media on application data for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has intensified concerns about the state of education in Nigeria’s North-west.

The development followed a post on X by Aminu Nass, a professor of mathematics at the Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil, in which he shared a comment by one Dr Bashir Jelani.

“This is not about Arewa’s poor JAMB results. The number of registered candidates should worry us more,” Mr Jelani wrote.

“Kano (17.5 million) is about three times as populous as Benue (6 million). Yet, the number of candidates who sat for the 2026 JAMB in Benue (99k) far exceeds the number in Kano.

“If that doesn’t scare you, look at Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara, which had only 17.4k, 17.7k, and 15.6k candidates, respectively. Each of these states has a population roughly comparable to that of Benue.

“The total number of students who sat for the 2026 JAMB in all three states (SOKEZA) was just 51k, approximately half the number in Benue alone,” Mr Jelani stated.

Mr Nass’s post sharing the comment drew many reactions, with many commentators lamenting the state of education across northern Nigeria.

A review of official data by PREMIUM TIMES confirmed Mr Jelani’s observation that Benue State recorded nearly twice as many applications for the 2026 UTME as Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states combined.

Figures presented at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s 2026 Policy Meeting put applications from candidates of Benue State origin at 104,409.

Kebbi recorded 18,812 applications, Sokoto 18,786 and Zamfara 16,744, giving the three states a combined total of 54,342.

The combined figure is about 52 per cent of Benue’s, although the three states together have a much larger population.

The National Population Commission’s 2023 population projections, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, put Benue’s population at 6,259,867.

Kebbi was projected at 5,711,801, Sokoto at 6,501,265 and Zamfara at 5,990,131. Together, the three states had a projected population of about 18.2 million, or 2.9 times Benue’s population.

A PREMIUM TIMES calculation puts Benue’s 2026 application rate at about 16.7 for every 1,000 residents.

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Kebbi recorded about 3.3 applications per 1,000 residents, Sokoto 2.9 and Zamfara 2.8.

Taken together, the three North-west states recorded about three applications for every 1,000 residents, compared with 16.7 in Benue.

Benue’s crude population-adjusted application rate was therefore about 5.6 times the combined rate of the three states.

The calculation uses the entire population of each state rather than only people of secondary-school or university-entry age. It should therefore not be read as the precise proportion of eligible young people applying for tertiary education.

It does, however, show how wide the difference in UTME participation is between Benue and the three states.

Claim draws attention to participation gap

Mr Jelani argued that concern about education in northern Nigeria should not focus only on candidates’ UTME performance, but also on how many young people register for the examination.

The figures reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES differ from those quoted in the post, but the central comparison remains valid.

There is also a difference between applications classified by state of origin and the number of candidates who register or sit the examination in a particular state.

The figures used in this analysis are classified by state of origin.

JAMB separately publishes registration figures by state during the registration exercise. In a March 2026 bulletin, for instance, the Board listed 83,147 registrations for Kano and 69,860 for Benue at that stage.

Those figures cannot be directly substituted for the final state-of-origin figures because candidates may register or sit the examination outside their states of origin.

Pattern predates 2026

The difference did not begin this year.

In its 2024 Policy Meeting report, JAMB recorded 87,124 applications from candidates of Benue origin.

Kano, whose projected population is more than twice Benue’s, recorded 76,584.

Kebbi recorded 17,664 applications, Sokoto 17,453 and Zamfara 9,478.

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JAMB noted in the report that the raw application figures needed to be considered alongside state populations for a more meaningful comparison.

The NPC projected Kano’s population at 15.67 million in 2023, compared with 6.26 million for Benue.

Kano therefore had about two and a half times Benue’s population, yet Benue recorded more UTME applications in 2024.

The figures also draw attention to how many students progress through secondary education to the point of seeking admission into universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions.

Beyond examination performance

Public discussion about education outcomes in northern Nigeria often centres on how candidates perform in national examinations.

The JAMB figures show that participation itself deserves attention.

Before a young person appears in UTME statistics, they would ordinarily have progressed through primary and secondary education.

That progression remains difficult for many children in the North-west.

UNICEF’s Nigeria Education Fact Sheets, based on the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, estimated that 48 per cent of senior-secondary-school-age children in the North-west were out of school, compared with 28 per cent in the North-central region, where Benue is located.

In June 2026, UNICEF said more than half of children across the North-west were out of school as governors from the region committed to accelerating action on child poverty and social protection.

The agency cited poverty, insecurity, displacement and inadequate access to essential services among the challenges affecting children in the region.

The UTME figures alone cannot explain why application numbers are lower in individual states.

Several factors may be involved, including secondary-school enrolment and completion, participation and performance in WAEC and NECO examinations, household income, insecurity, access to schools, early marriage, availability of tertiary institutions and decisions by school-leavers to pursue alternatives to university education.

The application totals may also include candidates whose registration costs were paid by governments, lawmakers, foundations and other individuals through free UTME registration schemes.

Such interventions remove the registration cost for some candidates, but PREMIUM TIMES has not established how many of the 2026 applicants in Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara benefited from them or how many would otherwise have been unable to register.

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For now, the figures establish the disparity, but not its causes.

They also show that debates about education outcomes in the affected states cannot be limited to how candidates perform after entering the examination hall. The number of young people who reach that stage is itself an important part of the picture.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted JAMB for clarification on the final 2026 state-of-origin figures, the different state classifications used by the Board and its assessment of the disparity.

The Board had not responded at the time of filing this report.

The report will be updated when a response is received.