Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has expressed concerns over the misrepresentation of figures in the 2025 budget proposal presented to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance on Monday.
Fielding questions from newsmen at an event in Abuja on Tuesday, the JAMB Boss dismissed reports making the rounds that the Board spent huge amounts on fumigation, meals, among other items in 2024, describing them as misrepresentations.
Prof. Oloyede stated that the Board’s total expenditure for fumigation across all states in 2024 was less than N1 million.
“I want to say emphatically without any iota of doubt that I never presented any budget performance of 2024 before the National Assembly yesterday. I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding.
“I did not talk about the 2024 budget performance, and we did not spend any money, any humongous money in 2024. Indeed, what we spent on fumigation in the whole state of the Federation, all offices in 2024, was not up to one million naira, and what we budgeted for 2025 for fumigation is less than two million,” he said.
Prof. Oloyede explained that misunderstandings arose because the detailed breakdown of the budget proposal was not fully reviewed during the presentation.
“On the succeeding page, we provided the breakdown with asterisks to call attention to it, but we did not go and read the other pages where we analyzed what we were doing,” he noted.
On the N6.5 billion allegedly spent on training in 2024, he said the money is just a proposal for 2025 that cuts across various budget lines, including monitoring of examination, admission expenses, e-facilities payment, awards for best higher education institutions, among others.
“We have 10,500 examiners and invigilators going to conduct both the mock and the UTME. Some of them stay for 10 days. I do not determine their DTA. It’s the government that determines the DTA to be paid to them. So what offence have I committed in putting their claims together?”, he queried.
On the alleged huge amount spent on meals, the JAMB’s helmsman said: “Everybody knows that at the JAMB headquarters, we provide one lunch for those in the headquarters and we provide this lunch for them partly because we don’t want our system to be destroyed.
“Apart from the fact that there are security reasons for not allowing people going in and coming out, You also know that we have some ICT infrastructure that will be damaged if we allow people to bring food and remnants.
“So we created the canteen and we provide for them and others have become agitated. So we are now saying for 2025, we should provide for 2,300. 2,300 times 22 days, times 12 months, what will it be if not over N1 billion? “
On the clamour for downward review of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) fee instead of the Board remitting money to federal coffers, Prof. Oloyede said: “I think to the best of my knowledge I have done what I’m supposed to do. We have reduced it from N5,000 to N3,500.
“This is the least paid anywhere in the world for any admission, unless you want it to be given free. And we can assure you, if we are given a fair opportunity to explain, Nigerians will know that I, Ishaq Oloyede, would not misappropriate or misuse money”, he said.
He said the figure that was also misrepresented was the amount proposed for cleaners, security, among others.
“In all the states of the federation, we have 580 security men and cleaners. Where would their salaries come from?” he asked, adding that the increase in minimum wage from N30, 000 to N70,000 will also lead to an increase in their budgetary provision.
Prof. Oloyede, however, expressed hope that the National Assembly committee would allow him to provide further clarifications on the budget to resolve any lingering misunderstandings.
