In the past five years, Anambra State has emerged as one of the states that produced the overall best candidates in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) especially from 2019 to 2023. Other states are Imo, Abia, Lagos, Ogun and Osun.
The consistent performance by students from the states in UTME has gone a long way to confirm the quality of their secondary school education.
In 2023, Umeh Nkechinyere from Anambra State topped the UTME chart. According to Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the current registrar and chief executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Umeh Nkechinyere scored 360 points out of the possible 400 marks to emerge as the best candidate in the federation. She applied to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos.
Second best on the chart are Stephen Aguele, an indigene of Edo State, and Oluwafemi Ositade, an indigene of Osun State as each of them scored 358 points out of the possible 400 marks.
In 2022, JAMB registrar confirmed Adebayo Eyimofe, a male candidate from Ekiti State, who scored 362 points out of the possible 400 marks, to be the best student in UTME across the federation in that year. He was followed by Ugwu Chikelu , an indigene of Enugu State, who scored 359 points.
In 2021 the examination body confirmed Monwuba Chibuzor Chibuikem , a male from Lagos State, topped the chart as he scored 358 points out of the possible 400 marks. The second best was Qomarudeen Alabi from Osun and Adeogun Oreoluwa from Ogun State who shared joint scores of 350 points each out of the possible 400 marks.
Professor Oloyede also revealed that the best candidates in 2021 chose to attend Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.
In 2020, Maduafokwa Egoagwuagu Agnes, was confirmed as the best candidate in the UTME examination. Miss Agnes who hails from Ihiala Local Government of Area of Anambra State, emerged with a whooping score of 365 points in the UTME examination.
Also, Nwobi Okwuchukwu David, an indegine of Anambra, was the second best with the score of 363 points out of the possible 400 marks. This has so far been the best performance in the UTME examination.
In 2019, a 15-year-old boy, Ekele Franklin, an indigene of Imo State, emerged as the best candidate in the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME). Ekele Franklin, who made University of Lagos his first choice, scored 347 points.
The second best on the chart was a 16-year-old boy, Emmanuel Chidebube, from Abia State with the score of 346 points. While Isaac Olamide, a 17-year-old boy from Osun came third with the score of 345 points.
