Generation of profile code is one of the important things everyone who wants to sit for JAMB needs to do before he/she can be able to register. This simply means without generating your profile code, you will be denied access to register for the exam.
One of the common ways of generating this code is by sending a SMS message that contains NIN followed by your 11-digit NIN to 55019 or 66019. Let’s imagine your 11-Digit NIN is 00000000000. To generate your profile code, you will need to send NIN 00000000000 to 55019 or 66019, and then you will receive your 10-digit profile code.
But the question here is, after sending your NIN to 55019 or 66019, how long will it take for JAMB to send the profile code?
This is one of the major questions students who want to register for JAMB ask after trying to generate their profile code and didn’t get any immediate response. Which is why in this article, I will be answering the question on how long it takes JAMB to send a profile code and possible mistakes students make that allow JAMB to delay the process.
How Long Does It Take JAMB To Send Profile Code?
Generally, it should take less than 5 minutes for JAMB to send your profile code immediately after sending the SMS message containing NIN and your 11-Digit NIN to 55019. But in some cases, it might take longer than that. Some people own might take less than 5 minutes, some might take hours, and some might even see theirs at midnight. But no matter the delay, I don’t think it should exceed 24 hours.
Now another question is, what do I do if mine is taking longer than expected? Well, I will tell you what to do, but before that, make sure you have done the following below.
1 Check If Your SMS Was Actually Sent To 55019 or 66019
I have seen a couple of students complaining that JAMB hasn’t sent their profile code despite making several attempts. I had to check their phone, and I found out that the message wasn’t sent to the right number, which is 55019 or 66019.
If you don’t send the message to the numbers given by JAMB (55019 or 66019), there is no way you will receive your profile code, and the fault is definitely from you. So please go back and confirm if your SMS was sent to 55019.
2 Check If The SMS Format Is Correct
Like I said earlier, the correct format is NIN followed by your 11-Digit NIN. Let’s say my NIN is 00000000000. I will send NIN 00000000000 to 55019 or 66019. Make sure the NIN is in capital letters and there is one space in between.
3 Confirm If You Sent The Right 11-Digits NIN
Some students might make mistakes while typing their NIN 11-Digits, and this can cause different error messages. So check and confirm if you actually sent the correct one.
4 Check If You Have At Least ₦50 Airtime
To generate the profile code, JAMB will charge you ₦50 for charges per every message you send to 55019 or 66019. So if you don’t have up to that, your SMS won’t be delivered, and you won’t be able to get your profile code.
5 Check if the number you are using hasn’t been used by another candidate.
According to JAMB, one number can only be used by one candidate to generate a profile code, so make sure the number you are using hasn’t been used by another person for profile code generation.
What To Do If JAMB Is Taking Time To Send My Profile Code?
If you have confirmed all those things I listed up and JAMB hasn’t sent you your profile code, below are the things to do that I feel will help.
1 Exercise Patience
You need to have patience because JAMB might take time to process the message. Some people might come immediately, some after a few hours, and some later on at midnight. If you have sent the SMS message containing NIN and your 11-digit NIN, you would be charged ₦50 immediately, and you will receive a response saying,
Your message has been received and is being processed.
If you have gotten this message, just have patience and try to wait for like 24 hours before trying again. The reason is because, out of fear, many students will keep on trying immediately, and for each message, you will be charged ₦50. So why waste your airtime when you can just wait for a while before trying again?
2 Try Again at Midnight
This is because the delay might be due to the network congestion; many students would want to try in the daytime, and it might be difficult for JAMB to process all those messages at once, which might cause a delay.
So another way to tackle this is to try at midnight, around 12:00-6:00 am, where the number of students submitting requests is few. I have seen students who used this method, and it worked perfectly. You can also try using MTN SIM (number) since they have a very fast network compared to others like AIRTEL and GLO.
3 Contact Network Provider’s Customer Service
One of the ways to resolve this is to contact the customer service of your network provider, be it MTN, AIRTEL, GLO, or 9 Mobile. Call them via their customer service number and explain your problems to them. For example, you can tell them, “I am trying to generate my JAMB profile code, and I have sent the SMS, but JAMB is yet to send it.”.
This will help in the sense that if the issue is from them, they will help rectify it, and if it’s not, they will tell you. Any response they give to you will help you know the next step to take so you won’t be thinking the fault is from them whereas it’s not.
4 Contact JAMB Support
JAMB has a support page where candidates can lay complaints on different issues, with profile code being one of them. So all you need to do is VISIT their support page and file your complaints. Please make sure your message is well detailed. JAMB will take 24 to 48 hours to respond to your complaints, and you will see their reply through the email address you filled out before submitting the ticket.
I think following these steps should at least help in resolving your profile code delay issues.
Conclusion
So in essence, JAMB takes less than 5 minutes to send a profile code, and sometimes it might take longer than that. However, there are ways to tackle this, which I have explained above. I hope this article has answered your question. If you have any further questions, kindly drop them in the comment section below.