.jpg "JAMB Requests Autonomy, Increment Of Registration Fees")
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has prayed on a House of Representatives committee to exclude it from 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. The committee is currently holding a public hearing on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) ahead of the 2023 budget presentation by the executive arm. “There is nowhere that the government funds this type of examination,” Oloyede said.
“They actually provide some support for the institution because students pay some token as registration fees and from it, they bear the responsibility of salaries and provide some succour.
According to Oloyede, they are comfortable to be taken off the budget but there are conditions. One of the conditions, for example, when students registered in 2016, they collected N5,000 and that had been on for five years before he joined the board.
“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.”
The Deputy Chariman of the Committee, Saidu Abdullahi (APC, Niger), said the lawmakers are concerned about the impact on the disposable income of Nigerians.
Mr Abdullahi argued that reverting to N50,000 means transferring the burden of operating the board to parents and guardians.
The new development has generated adverse reactions on social media wherein worried Nigerians including parents and guardians complained that the board is trying to transfer more burden of paying higher fees on them.
