Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC/Edo North) raised concerns over the expenditure of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in 2024 during the agency’s 2025 budget defence session before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance.
Oshiomhole criticized JAMB’s financial practices, particularly its spending on security, cleaning, and other operational items.
“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,” Oshiomhole remarked.
He further questioned JAMB’s use of N850 million on security, cleaning, and fumigation in 2024. “What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?” he asked. Oshiomhole also criticized the agency for spending N600 million on local travel, calling for greater accountability.
In response, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed that the agency remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2024 while receiving a grant of N6 billion from the Federal Government.
This prompted additional scrutiny from the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abiodun Faleke, who questioned why a revenue-generating and self-sustaining agency should rely on federal allocations. “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 queried.
The lawmakers hinted at the possibility of removing JAMB’s federal funding in future budgets unless the agency can provide compelling justifications for its reliance on government allocations. JAMB’s financial practices are now under heightened scrutiny, signaling potential changes in its funding structure.
