ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says fraudsters are using artificial intelligence and biometric manipulation to compromise its university entrance examinations, raising fears for the integrity of the nation’s higher education admissions system.
A special committee set up by JAMB to investigate examination infractions reported on Monday, September 8, 2025, that its probe into the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exposed “highly organised, technology-driven” cheating rings.
Jake Epelle, who chaired the panel, told JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede that investigators discovered 192 cases of AI-assisted impersonation through image morphing, also known as “deepfakes.”
The technique allows an impostor to sit an exam by superimposing a candidate’s face onto their own body, evading biometric verification checks.
The committee also uncovered 4,251 cases of “finger blending,” where fingerprints are digitally altered or merged to enable multiple people to register under a single identity.
Other infractions included 1,878 false disability claims, forged documents, multiple National Identification Number registrations, and collusion between candidates and exam syndicates.
Epelle described the malpractice as widespread and systemic.
“What we found is highly organised, technology-driven, and dangerously normalised,” he said, noting that parents, schools, tutorial centres and even some computer-based test operators were implicated.
Weak legal frameworks, he added, have made prosecutions rare.
To stem the abuse, the committee urged JAMB to deploy new AI-powered tools to detect biometric anomalies, adopt real-time monitoring of examination centres, and create a centralised examination security operations hub to respond swiftly to threats.
The panel, inaugurated on August 18, was mandated to investigate rising cases of malpractice, review JAMB’s existing safeguards, and recommend reforms to secure the examination process.
The findings underscore the growing challenge facing Nigeria’s exam bodies, as sophisticated technology is increasingly harnessed to subvert one of the country’s most important educational gateways.
