The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said it has remitted N3.51 billion to the federal government as operating surplus for 2021.
A statement issued by the examination body and signed by its head of public affairs and protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, noted that the remittance “is in line with Prof. Is-haq Oloyede’s avowed commitment to prudent management of public resources.”
But a top official of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella organisation for all university lecturers in Nigeria, has described the JAMB’s ‘conduct’ as a reflection of the ‘exploitation’ of the people by the Nigerian government.
The coordinator of the Lagos zone of ASUU, Laja Odukoya, who spoke with our reporter on the phone on Wednesday after JAMB’s announcement, said “Nigerians must see behind the smokescreen of what is regarded as performance by the examination body, and take it for what is truly called, exploitation”.
JAMB spokesperson, Mr Benjamin, when reached, declined comments on Mr Odukoya’s assertions.
JAMB said since 2016 when the new leadership of the examination body began to remit excess funds to the government, the practice has continued till date.
The body said the development has also led to the reduction in the amount charged for the registration of its examination from N5,000 to N3,500. It said by the reduction alone, more than N3 billion has been saved for the parents and guardians who pay for the candidates that sit its examination.
The statement reads in part; “This commitment to probity coupled with the adoption of international best practices make for cost-effective operational processes and attendant savings to yield those humongous remittances to government coffers. This has been the norm rather than the exception in the last six years beginning from 2016 when he (Oloyede) remitted the whopping sum of N7 billion and repeated the same in subsequent years.
“It is pertinent to note that one of the direct benefits of the sustained remittances by the Prof. Oloyede-led management manifested in the reduction of the cost of the application documents (UTME and DE) by candidates from N5000 to N3500 in 2018 by President Muhammadu Buhari. This singular act has ensured the annual transfer of over N3b to the pockets of parents and guardians of candidates as a consequence of the slash in the price of UTME forms.”