Oshiomhole berates JAMB for extortion students, “many of them orphans”
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) on Monday grilled the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over its spending in 2024, noting a huge N1.1 billion spent on meals and refreshments, N600 million on local travel, among other curious items.
Oshiomhole raised concerns during JAMB’s 2025 budget defence before the National Assembly (NASS) Joint Committee on Finance.
He asked JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, a professor, to justify N850 million spent on security, cleaning, and fumigation in 2024.
“You spent N1.1 billion 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 N850 million on security, cleaning and fumigation in 2024. What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?”
Oshiomhole also criticised JAMB for spending N600 million on local travel.
Oloyede explained that JAMB remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2024 and received a grant of N6 billion from the Federal Government.
House Committee Finance Chairman Abiodun Faleke wondered why JAMB, a revenue-generating and self-sustaining agency, should rely on federal allocation.
“You remitted N4 billion and got N6 billion from the federal government. Why not keep the N4 billion and we stop the government from funding JAMB?” Faleke asked.
Floated the idea of removing JAMB’s allocation in subsequent budgets unless convincing justification is provided for its reliance on government funding.
JAMB generates N22.9b revenue from students in one year, remits N6b to federal treasury
It emerged last week that a total N22,996,653,265.25 revenue was generated by JAMB in 2024, out of which it remitted N6,034,605,510.69 to the federal treasury.
JAMB gets its revenue by charging examination fees on Nigerian students seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
The latest bulletin released by JAMB Public Communication Adviser Fabian Benjamin disclosed the sums, saying the JAMB board noted that the reduction of N1,500 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) form fees, multiplied by the number of candidates, increased the effective remittance to N9,013,068,510.69.
JAMB also disclosed that
- Remittance forms part of its operating surplus following the conduct of the 2024 UTME.
- It has contributed more than N50 billion to the national treasury in the past seven years under its Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Is-haq Oloyede, a professor.
“As we reflect on 2024, it is essential to uphold our commitment to transparency by sharing our financial performance for the year. In 2024, the board generated a total income of N22,996,653,265.25,” the bulleting said.
“In 2024, the board remitted N6,034,605,510.69 to the government. When combined with the N1,500 reduction per form for candidates multiplied by the number of candidates that benefited in 2024, the total remittance by JAMB would amount to N9,013,068,510.69.”
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