The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on Thursday announced the temporary shutdown of its Central Admissions Processing System, CAPS, amid the ongoing admission exercise into tertiary institutions nationwide.
CAPS, which serves as the central platform for processing admissions into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, became unavailable following what the board described as technical challenges associated with its hosting arrangements.
The disruption occurred at a critical stage of the admission exercise, with tertiary institutions processing admission offers and candidates checking their admission status.
In a statement by its Acting Director, Public Affairs and Protocols, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said it had commenced discussions with the organisation hosting the CAPS platform to identify the source of the problem and restore the system.
The board acknowledged the significance of the disruption, noting that institutions, candidates and other stakeholders rely on CAPS for admission-related activities.
According to JAMB, “the Board is particularly conscious of the timing of this disruption, given that CAPS is the central platform through which admissions into tertiary institutions across the country are processed.”
It said the public statement was intended to keep candidates, institutions and other stakeholders informed and prevent speculation over the cause of the disruption.
“Rather than leave candidates, institutions and other stakeholders to speculate about the cause of the disruption, the Board is providing this update while all necessary efforts are being made to restore the platform,” it said.
JAMB assured candidates and institutions that it was working with the hosting organisation to restore CAPS to full functionality “within the shortest possible time.”
The board apologised for the inconvenience caused by the outage and appealed to candidates, institutions and other users to remain patient while efforts to resolve the technical problem continue.
It also said it would review the circumstances surrounding the disruption after the restoration of the platform, with a view to preventing a recurrence.
“Given the critical role of CAPS in ensuring a transparent, orderly and coordinated admissions process, the Board will also review the circumstances surrounding the disruption with a view to putting measures in place to prevent a recurrence of such interruptions,” JAMB stated.
The board said it would provide further updates as efforts to restore the platform progress.
