Nigeria’s youngest chartered accountant, Osasere Okundaye, has said the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is not excessively difficult, stressing that students’ performance depends largely on the quality of education they receive rather than lowering admission standards.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television, the 16-year-old accounting prodigy explained that she sat the UTME twice, noting that her first attempt was only to gain experience before taking the examination again the following year.

She maintained that with quality teaching, adequate learning resources, and proper guidance, Nigerian students are capable of excelling in the examination.

Okundaye acknowledged that educational standards vary across schools and regions in Nigeria, making it difficult to compare students’ performances directly.

She argued that instead of reducing JAMB cut-off marks, greater efforts should be directed toward improving the quality of education nationwide to enable more students to succeed.

The teenager recently made history after becoming Nigeria’s youngest chartered accountant at the age of 16 by successfully completing the institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) professional examinations, surpassing the previous record set in 2022.