NASS threatens to stop JAMB’s federal allocation over spending concerns
By Jeffrey Agbo
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance has issued a warning to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), threatening to remove its Federal Government grant from the 2025 budget proposal.
The warning came during a budget defence session on Monday, where JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, presented the agency’s financial breakdown.
Oloyede revealed that in 2024 JAMB remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund but received a government grant of N6 billion.
This disclosure led to sharp criticism from committee members, including Abiodun Faleke and Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who questioned why JAMB, a self-funding agency, continued to rely on federal allocations.
The lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with JAMB’s financial management and urged the agency to depend solely on its internally generated revenue. They indicated that unless a compelling justification is provided, JAMB’s allocation might be excluded from the 2025 budget.
READ ALSO:
JAMB generates N22.9b revenue from students in one year, remits N6b to federal treasury
Faleke, chairman of House Committee on Finance, asked: “You remitted N4bn and got N6bn from the Federal Government. Why not keep the N4bn and we stop the government from funding JAMB?”
Oshiomhole also inquired, “You spent N1.1bn on meals and refreshments. Are you being freely fed by the government? What this means is that you are spending the money you generate from poor students, many of them orphans.
“You also spent N850m on security, cleaning and fumigation in 2024. What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?”
Oshiomhole criticised JAMB for spending N600m on local travels and called on Oloyede to justify N6.5bn on local training.