The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has set November 30, 2026, as the final deadline for candidates with outstanding admission offers from the 2021 to 2025 admission exercises to accept or reject the offers.
The Board warned that candidates who fail to take action before the deadline risk losing the opportunity to accept or reject the offers, with the affected admissions subsequently reverting to “Not Admitted” on JAMB’s records.
The extension followed a temporary disruption of the Central Admissions Processing System, CAPS, which was unavailable for about 96 hours, preventing some candidates from accessing their admission records.
JAMB had earlier fixed September 30, 2026, as the deadline for candidates with outstanding offers from previous admission exercises. However, the Board said it approved the additional two months to ensure that candidates affected by the CAPS disruption were not disadvantaged.
In a statement signed by Fabian Benjamin, Acting Director, Public Affairs and Protocol, JAMB stressed that November 30 would be the final deadline for candidates to indicate whether they wanted to accept or reject outstanding admissions from the 2021–2025 exercises.
It warned that any subsequent request to alter such admission records would attract the applicable penalty fee, noting that the offers had remained outstanding for several years.
JAMB particularly urged candidates whose admissions were not reflected on the matriculation list to act immediately, warning that failure to regularise their admission records could affect access to benefits associated with properly documented admissions, including participation in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, scheme.
According to the Board, candidates who accept their outstanding offers will be able to proceed to print their admission letters, while those who reject them will have their dashboards reverted to “Not Admitted.”
JAMB said the process would enable it to update its records and ensure that the national admission database accurately reflected candidates’ current admission status.
The Board also clarified the position of candidates who were no longer studying at institutions where they had previously been offered admission or who were currently enrolled in programmes different from those contained in their old admission offers.
Such candidates, it said, could accept the outstanding admission and subsequently apply for the appropriate correction or deletion of the previous admission, where applicable, to enable the Board to properly update their records.
Similarly, candidates currently pursuing a second degree but still carrying an unaccepted admission offer from an earlier admission exercise could reject the old offer and continue with their current programme.
JAMB further allayed concerns among candidates offered admission in the 2026 admission exercise but who still had outstanding offers from previous years.
The Board said such candidates could reject the earlier admission offer without affecting their 2026 admission.
JAMB said the latest extension was intended not only to compensate for the period during which CAPS was unavailable but also to provide candidates with a final opportunity to indicate their decisions and enable the Board to maintain an accurate and reliable national admission database.
It therefore urged all affected candidates to take immediate action rather than wait until the deadline.
The Board reiterated that all outstanding 2021–2025 admission offers that remained neither accepted nor rejected by November 30 would automatically revert to “Not Admitted” status on its records.
“Failure to accept an admission offer within the stipulated period may render the offer invalid,” the Board warned.
