The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance has expressed outrage over the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) alleged extravagant spending, threatening to slash its federal grant in the 2025 budget proposal.
The controversy unfolded during JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede’s presentation of the agency’s 2025 budget before the Senate and House of Representatives’ Joint Committee on Monday.
Prof. Oloyede disclosed that JAMB remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2024, despite receiving a federal grant of N6 billion during the same period. However, committee members took issue with what they deemed excessive expenditures by the agency.
Committee Chairman Abiodun Faleke questioned why JAMB spent more than it generated. “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?” he remarked.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole further criticized JAMB for spending N1.1 billion on meals and refreshments and N850 million on fumigation and security in 2024.
“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 pointed out.
He also mocked the fumigation expenses, asking, “You spent N850 million on security, cleaning, and fumigation. What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?”
The committee accused JAMB of financial irresponsibility, particularly given its reliance on federal grants and revenue derived from students, many of whom face financial hardships.
The lawmakers hinted at reducing JAMB’s funding in the 2025 budget as a way of curbing what they described as unnecessary expenditures.
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