JAMB seeks exclusion from budgetary allocation, wants registration fee increased

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has asked a house of representatives committee to exclude it from the annual budgetary allocation.

Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB registrar, made the request on Wednesday when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on finance at the interactive session on the 2023-2025 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF).

Oloyede said the board should be allowed to make an upward review of its examination fee as a “condition” for JAMB to be excluded from budgetary allocation.

“There is nowhere that the government funds this type of examination,” he said.

“They actually support the institution because students pay some token as registration fees and from it, they bear the responsibility of salaries and provide some succour. 

“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. 

“When we came in, we remitted N7.5 billion. We felt it was too much and approached the federal government to reduce the fees. We have not added a kobo since. 

“I believe we should revert to the N5,000 we were charging. Given the inflation, if we charge N10,000 — I am just giving it as an example — nobody will ask the federal government for one kobo. I am not aware of anywhere in the world, except maybe Finland, that charges as low as JAMB is charging. 

“In Finland, we know that everything is free. 

“We are hearing that you are planning to borrow billions. We are all going to sink at the end of the day. If there is any way anybody believes he can save this country, we should start doing that. The earlier we start, the better for us.”

Saidu Abdullahi, deputy chairman of the committee, said if the examination fee is increased, it will put more pressure on Nigerians. 

In recent times, there have been debates about whether JAMB should be abolished.

In 2021, JAMB scrapped the general cut-off marks for admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions — the decision was a first in its 43-year-old history.