JAMB Seeks Financial Autonomy, Faults Exam Fee Reduction

JAMB has sought financial autonomy and faulted the exam fee reduction.

Glamtush reports that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged the House of Representatives’ Committee Finance to grant it financial autonomy by removing it from the list of the ministries, departments and agencies in the annual budget of the Federal Government.

This is just as JAMB called for the reversal of the recent reduction of examination from N5,000 to N3,500.

This online platform understands that the Registrar of JAMB, Ishaq Oloyede, made the appeal in Abuja on Wednesday at the public hearing on the proposed 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper organised by the committee.

Oloyede, however, noted that there are conditions to be met before JAMB could be removed from the annual budget.

According to him, one of the conditions is that the Board should be allowed to upwardly review examination fees.

The Registrar recalled that JAMB did a downward review in 2017 after remitting N7.5bn revenue.

He noted that the amount charged for registration was reduced from N5,000 to N3,500. He said given the current economic realities, the government should allow JAMB to revert back to N5,000 and be autonomous.

According to him, no country except Finland charges as low as Nigeria. He stressed that no country funds such an examination body fully.

Oloyede said, “There is nowhere that government funds this type of examination. They actually provide some support for the institution because students pay some token as registration fee; and from it, they bear the responsibility of salaries and provide some succours.

“We are comfortable to be taken off the budget but there are conditions. One of the conditions, for example, when students registered in 2016, we collected N5,000 and that had been on for five years before I joined (JAMB).