JAMB Cut-Off Mark for Economics: What Is Published

Economics is a course where the published numbers can look strange at first glance, because the gap between the general figure and the state figures is wide at the school we could read most clearly. This page lays out the layers and the figures we could trace, and it explains how to avoid reading too much into any one of them.

Layer one: the JAMB national minimum

Every year JAMB holds a policy meeting with university heads and other stakeholders to fix the lowest UTME score at which an institution may admit. According to Legit.ng's report of the meeting held in Abuja on 11 May 2026, the minimums for the 2026/2027 admission session are:

Nairametrics, previewing the same meeting, reported that the 2025 minimum for universities was also 150. This is a floor for the whole country and says nothing about any one course. Our guide on what JAMB score you need to get admission explains how the floor, the school's own cut-off and the final ranking fit together. Figures for the 2027/2028 session have not been announced, and JAMB publishes its decisions on jamb.gov.ng.

Layer two: each school's cut-off

Individual universities publish their own cut-offs for each programme, and these differ from school to school and from year to year. One official example is the University of Lagos, which published its UTME merit admission cut-off marks for 2025/2026 in October 2025.

UNILAG's 3 October 2025 page lists Economics at 73.475 on its general merit list. The six state figures are much more spread out than for most programmes on the page: from 54.925 (Ekiti) to 71.575 (Ogun), a gap of 18.55 points between the general figure and the Ekiti figure. The page does not define its columns or explain the gaps, so we are reporting the numbers and not an explanation. It also does not state the scale; the values look like aggregates and not marks out of 400.

Among the twelve engineering, law, commerce and health programmes we compared from that page, Economics had one of the lower merit figures, above only Chemical Engineering at 72.8 and Petroleum & Gas Engineering at 70.725. That describes UNILAG in 2025/2026 and does not make Economics easy elsewhere.

Other reported figures

The table below collects the other figures we could find for the same programme, with the type of source. Press-only figures are reported, not confirmed by us against the university's own notice.

Both other schools list the programme as Economics and Development Studies, which is a different title from plain Economics, and neither report states a scale. Oye-Ekiti's 64.55 and Otuoke's 189 cannot be compared with each other or with UNILAG's. We include them only to show that titles and scales vary.

Reading these numbers without being misled

Three habits will save you from the most common errors.

1. Compare within one university only. A figure of 78 at one school and a figure of 190 at another are not on the same scale, so putting them side by side tells you nothing. Several of the notices we cite do not state their scale, and we have not guessed.
2. Match the programme title exactly. Schools use titles such as Economics and Development Studies or Computer Science and Informatics, and a figure for one title does not carry over to a neighbouring programme.
3. Note the year and the status. Everything here is for the 2025/2026 session. Cut-offs for the next session are set afresh, and a figure reported by a news outlet can differ from the school's final notice.

Layer three: the ranking on the day

A published cut-off is a threshold, not a guarantee. After the cut-off, many universities screen candidates with a post-UTME and combine the results into an aggregate. The formula differs by school, so use your target school's own notice. Our post-UTME aggregate calculator guide shows how to work one out. If more qualified candidates apply than there are places, meeting the cut-off exactly may not be enough, and nobody can honestly give you a national safe score for a course.

What the numbers mean for your plan

1. Treat 150 as the entry ticket, not the target. It lets a university consider you; it does not make you competitive for most courses.
2. Check three or four schools you actually want, on their own websites, for the latest session, and write down their scale.
3. Prepare for the screening as well. Where a post-UTME is held, it can move your final position, so do not wait for the UTME result to start.
4. Keep a backup. If your first choice is out of reach, a related course may be possible; read about changing your course, and remember that the subjects you wrote must fit the new course.

Cut-offs for the 2027/2028 session have not been announced. Do not rely on any website that claims to know the 2027 figure.

Make sure you have the right subjects

Economics uses Mathematics and Economics in the lists we read, with a fourth subject chosen from a menu that the two lists describe differently. See JAMB subject combination for Economics.

No guarantees

We cannot promise that any score will win a place. What you control is your preparation: cover the syllabus, practise under time pressure, and work on the topics that cost you marks.

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