Kehinde Fajobi
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has refuted allegations of inflated expenditure in the Board’s 2024 budget, describing such claims as baseless.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Oloyede clarified that what was presented to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance was JAMB’s 2025 budget proposal, not the 2024 performance report.
“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,” he said.
Oloyede dismissed claims of excessive spending on fumigation, meals, and training.
He revealed that the Board spent less than ₦1 million on fumigation across all its offices in 2024 and budgeted under ₦2 million for 2025.
On the alleged ₦6.5 billion spent on training in 2024, Oloyede explained, “The money was just a proposal for 2025 that cuts across various budget lines, including monitoring of examinations, admission expenses, e-facilities payment, and awards for best higher education institutions.”
He further defended the meal provision at JAMB headquarters, stating, “Everybody knows that at the JAMB headquarters, we provide one lunch for those in the headquarters… This is partly due to security reasons and to protect our ICT infrastructure from being compromised.”
According to him, feeding 2,300 staff for 22 days each month over a year amounts to over ₦1 billion.
Addressing concerns over the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) fee, Oloyede reiterated that it was reduced from ₦5,000 to ₦3,500, which he argued is one of the lowest worldwide.
“This is the least paid anywhere in the world for any admission unless you want it to be given free. I 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 stated.
He also addressed misrepresented figures for cleaners and security staff, noting that JAMB employs 580 personnel in these roles across all states, whose salaries are impacted by the recent increase in the national minimum wage.
Oloyede expressed optimism that the National Assembly would give him the opportunity to clarify the proposals further to resolve any misunderstandings.