The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has extended the deadline for candidates offered admission between 2021 and 2026 to accept or reject their admission offers.
The deadline, earlier fixed for Monday, August 31, 2026, has now been extended to Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
The Acting Director, Public Affairs and Protocol, Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this in a statement posted on X on Saturday.
The board described the extension as “a final opportunity” for affected candidates to take action on their outstanding admission offers.
Candidates with pending admission offers who have not yet accepted or rejected (regular or CUIIA) such offers are strongly advised to do so before 30 September 2026,” Benjamin said.
JAMB urged candidates not to wait until the deadline before taking action, warning that failure to do so would affect the status of their admissions.
“Candidates should not wait until the deadline, as failure to take action within the stipulated period will have consequences for the status of such admissions,” the board stated.
According to JAMB, candidates who accept their admission offers will be able to proceed to print and obtain their admission letters.
It added that candidates who reject their offers would have their dashboards reverted to “Not Admitted”.
“Those who reject their offers will have their dashboards reverted to ‘Not Admitted’, enabling the Board to update its records and ensure that its admission data accurately reflects the current status of candidates,” it said.
The board also provided guidance for candidates who were no longer studying at the institutions where their previous admissions were offered.
“For candidates who are no longer in the institution where the previous admission was offered, or who are currently in a different programme from the one for which the previous admission was offered, such candidates may accept the outstanding admission and subsequently apply for the appropriate correction or deletion of the admission, as the case may be,” JAMB stated.
It explained that the process would enable it to update the candidates’ admission status and records.
“This will enable the Board to appropriately update the candidate’s admission status and records,” it added.
JAMB also addressed candidates currently pursuing a second degree but who still had an earlier admission offer pending.
“Similarly, candidates who are currently pursuing a second degree but still have a previous admission offer that remains unaccepted may go ahead and reject such an offer and continue with their current programme,” the board said.
The board further assured candidates who had secured admission in the 2026 admission exercise that rejecting an earlier outstanding offer would not affect their new admission.
“Such candidates may reject the previous admission offer, and doing so will have no adverse effect whatsoever on their 2026 admission,” JAMB stated.
It said the extension was granted to allow affected candidates to clearly indicate their decisions and help the board maintain accurate admission records.
“The Board is providing this extension to give all affected candidates one final opportunity to indicate clearly whether they wish to accept or reject their outstanding admission offers,” it said.
JAMB added that the measure would also help it “maintain accurate, current and reliable national admission records.”
However, the board warned that there would be no further extension after September 30.
“The Board wishes to emphasise that there will be no further opportunity after the expiration of the extended deadline on Wednesday, 30 September 2026,” it warned.
It said all outstanding admission offers that remained neither accepted nor rejected by the deadline would automatically be cancelled from the candidates’ active admission status.
“At the expiration of the deadline, all outstanding admission offers from 2021 to date that have neither been accepted nor rejected will automatically be reverted to ‘Not Admitted’ status and will remain so on the Board’s records,” JAMB said.
The board therefore urged all affected candidates to act before the deadline.
“All affected candidates are therefore strongly urged to act immediately and not wait until the deadline,” it stated.
JAMB concluded with a further warning, saying, “failure to accept an admission offer within the stipulated period will render the offer invalid.”
