The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has clarified that candidates and visitors below the age of 18 years are not required to present COVID-19 vaccination cards before being granted access into JAMB examination halls and facilities.
A statement issued on Tuesday and signed by the head of JAMB’s media and protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, said those mandated to provide vaccination cards are persons covered under the NCDC Vaccination policy.
Mr Benjamin said the clarification became necessary because it “discovered that many underage candidates were making frantic efforts to get vaccinated with some even falsifying their age to be vaccinated just to access services at the Board’s facilities.”
The statement reads in part; “All candidates, clients and other members of the public below the age of 18 years are not required to produce any vaccination card before being allowed access to our facilities. This category of persons are not covered by the NCDC vaccination policy.”
The examination body, however, said it would require evidence of being underage to allow any underage individual access to its facilities.
The examination board, in its published weekly bulletin, on Monday, announced that no individual will be allowed entry into JAMB offices nationwide, except they provide their COVID-19 vaccination card.
JAMB said staff and visitors to the board’s office must provide the vaccination card and an identification card to ensure that individuals do not provide vaccination cards that do not belong to them.
Before JAMB, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had announced that only fully vaccinated corps members will be allowed to participate in the scheme come 2022.
“We want to ensure that we adhere strictly to the non-pharmaceutical safety protocols of COVID-19,’’ the Director-General, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, said while addressing the 2021 Batch “C’’ Stream II set of corps members in a virtual meeting.
JAMB’s directive comes when Nigeria’s COVID-19 numbers saw a sharp rise, since the discovery of the Omicron Variant in early December.
JAMB said the directives are to protect the public as well as the staff of the Board from the ravaging virus, urging “all and sundry to play their own part in this battle of ensuring that we have a healthy and productive population.”
