The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board has asked the House Committee on Finance to provide it financial autonomy by removing it from the list of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies in the Federal Government’s yearly budget.
This comes as JAMB has appealed for a reversal of the recent decrease in examination fees from N5,000 to N3,500.
The Registrar of JAMB, Ishaq Oloyede, made the request on Wednesday in Abuja at a public hearing on the committee’s proposed 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
However, Oloyede stated that there are conditions that must be followed before JAMB is withdrawn from the annual budget.
One of the criteria, he says, is that the Board be allowed to increase examination fees.
The Registrar recalled that in 2017, JAMB conducted a downward review after receiving N7.5 billion in revenue.
He mentioned that the registration fee has been cut from N5,000 to N3,500.
“There is nothing in the government that funds this type of examination,” Oloyede added. Students pay a token as a registration fee, and from that, they bear the obligation of wages and provide some assistance to the institution.
“We are happy to be taken off the budget, but there are some restrictions.” For example, when students registered in 2016, we received N5,000, and this had been going on for five years before I joined (JAMB). We remitted N7.5 billion when we arrived. We thought it was excessive and petitioned the federal government to cut the fees. Since then, we have not added a kobo.
“I feel we should go back to charging N5,000.”
